Finding Freddy
by VanillaSpiders
Summary: Danny Fitzgerald is drawn to the sister location of a business he hasn't visited in almost a decade. Now, the day guard needs to follow clues left by one missing Mike Schmidt to bring the original four back online. Preferably before the dead stop keeping secrets. There are some jobs where being well known makes for a dangerous life. Sequel to Ghost Strings.
1. The Prologues

**The Ten Year Prologue**

* * *

It was calm in the darkness of his mind. Dead calm. Once every so often, he thought he felt something rooting around in it. Like how the mice in his little prison in the wall used to scamper over his legs, nibble on his bones and on his fur.

Finally, after some unknown passage of time, his internal systems started coming back online. For a while it was very touch and go. Then all at once, it wasn't touch and go at all. It was more like a flood. Information, electricity, and energy. A servo whined, a finger twitched. The rest of the fingers followed, bending as much as the tendons wrapped around them would allow it's hand to grip the steel table it was apparently sitting on.

When he finally lifted its eyelid plates, the optics managed to focus after a couple seconds.

The first thing it saw was a flashlight with a crack in it.

The second thing it saw was an encouraging smile.

 **The One Month Prologue**

* * *

There was blood on the floor.

And there was something worse coming up behind him.

Panting, shaking and half on hands and knees a figure crawled toward a small tablet lying on the black and white tile. The blood smeared, leaving wet streaks that would start drying as soon as they stopped being disturbed.

Bloodied fingers scrambled to hit the tablet, type along the keyboard.

A finger hit 'Send' just as They came crawling out of the vent. Something knocked into the figure and threw the body against the wall. They slithered closer.

His flashlight went rolling away.

" _Don't hold it against us."_

The man shivered, and turned to stare into the darkness. With little warning, the darkness parted, and lunged with the screeching of metal.

Below ground, They turned to grab the cracked flashlight, but it was nowhere to be seen.

Above ground, the world turned on. It was unaware, and certain parties intended to keep it that way.

But sometimes, secrets don't keep.


	2. Welcome Back

**See the end for author's notes.**

" _If you don't mind we would like to take a moment  
to invite you to an ongoing performance…"  
_

* * *

 **Chapter 1. Welcome Back**

When Danny Fitzgerald's shift ended, he was so tried he could have cried.

Pulling himself through the doors and down the steps, he started for the stretch of sidewalk that would take him to his apartment. The sun was setting somewhere behind a mass of buildings, and it was doing it swiftly and without much fanfare. He thought about calling his mom on the way home, or maybe stopping and getting something to eat. Mostly, he thought about his bed and the work he still had to do.

Sometimes, when the sun set before he could go home, he let his memories wander. Especially when the walk was dark and Danny saw the glowing signs of restaurants and bars, he would look up at them and remember another business else altogether.

How long had it been since that restaurant closed its doors?

Easily seven, maybe six years already.

Fitzgerald glanced at the pink streaked sunset sky. The lights of bars were on, and there was one neon sign he would pass as soon as he turned onto Kotter Ave. There it was, in fact. He still had ten minutes of walking to go, but it saved on gas he supposed. Kept him healthy, even.

' _Bonnie would laugh at you and tell you to get a bike.'_ Said his mind.

' _No,'_ he almost instantly and angrily corrected himself. ' _Bonnie would laugh at you and tell you to quit your dead-end job and find somewhere that was more_ _ **fun**_ _to work. Then he would tell you to get a bike.'_

But sometimes life wasn't about fun; it was about making ends meet.

Look at Schmidt, after all. Sure, working at that restaurant was fun but in the end the business had gone under anyway. Not through any fault of Mike's own, either. After the doors had closed, his mother said Mike had reopened the place as a small workshop, intending to keep some income flowing for the electricity most likely. Danny didn't know for sure the night guard's reasons for this, since Mike had stopped calling after Danny moved across the state.

Maybe that was for the best. Danny had heard even through the grapevine that the animatronics on their closing month were wearing out so bad they were scaring children. The job was no longer small enough for Mike, and the animatronics were out dated by now and in sorely need of upgrades the pizzeria couldn't afford. The night guard slash manage slash technician was in a sinking boat, but Danny _knew_ Mike. No one had gotten scrapped, he was sure of it.

' _If you're so sure, then why don't you call him?'_ Came another cruel, demanding thought. ' _I'll tell you why, Fitzy, you're too scared. Your life has gone nowhere and what would they all say to that? You're not the day guard anymore; you're not even within four hours of that old place. If it even still stands!'_

His job in the factory was supposed to keep him too tired to think about that restaurant. He hadn't really kept in touch with Mike and the others, not when he went off to college. And as the restaurant went under, Mike hadn't needed another guard, so the calls had petered out. Then, they had stopped altogether. Which was…strange, but from Danny's point of view Mike was most likely hiring someone else who was at least in the town Freddy's was in. Any sting of betrayal was washed away with the reminder that Danny had been the one to leave the job in the first place. To move to another city entirely, in fact. It wasn't anyone's fault but his own.

Bitterly, the young man forced himself to stop thinking of the past. Fitzgerald stomped up the steps off the apartment building. A window on the stairway showed the twilight starting to drape over the city. City lights twinkled on, but they were nothing like the star bed you could see above Freddy Fazbear's at night—dammit, there he was _again_! Thinking about it!

Well he was done, Danny decided.

"I'll eat dinner, watch that doofy soap opera Mom got me into, and then go the hell to sleep." Danny said sulkily as he unlocked his apartment and kicked the door behind him and his work boots off. "And no more thoughts of Freddy's or Mike or even Bonnie. Zero."

This was the perfect plan, too. He dutifully ignored the frozen pizza _(because pizza reminded him of Chica and Chica reminded him of Bonnie,)_ and instead threw a thing of popcorn into the microwave. As it started popping he wandered into his bedroom to peel off his clothes and find something hopefully a little cleaner.

This is where it all went to shit.

Not because he had no clean clothes, or because he saw a message on his laptop as he booted it up. Because what he was seeing was _impossible_. It was impossible and insane and he had worked too long in the generator room, right. The heat was getting to him…right, that was it. The microwave beeped twice, insistently, but Danny ignored it. He was standing still and gawking at the thing by his bed.

Sitting innocently on his bedside table was a yellowed plastic flashlight with a crack in it. When he picked it up and tried it, it did not turn on.

"Well no fucking wonder," Danny muttered to himself with a frown, giving the thing a good shake as he heard something rattled around in its middle. He unscrewed the bottom and pulled off the cap.

"No batteries…how the hell did _this_ thing even…" He stopped as his fingers met something that had no place being in a flashlight casing. Danny pulled out a folded piece of paper, and opened it.

 _Dear Alice,_

 _Let the_ _ **rabbit**_ _lead the way._

 _-The Mostly Ghostly, Sadly Madly Hatter_

On the back of that was an address. The destination chilled Danny to his bones.

 _Freddy's Sister Location._

* * *

 **Well, here we go kids. Nice to have you back! I want to say a HUGE thank you to EVERYONE who reviewed, either on or A03. I read them ALL and loved them! Your amazing, thoughtful and warm reviews push my chapters out faster, don't ever forget that.**

 **I will say this,** _ **Finding Freddy**_ **looks so far to be a little longer chapter wise than** _ **London Bridge**_ **is. Though I do want to make the chapters at least 6-8k but we'll see. I can't write in word length only chapters or I get bored and rambly fast, haha. And before I forget, the first song is called Welcome Back is by TryHardNinja.  
**


	3. There's a Place in the Dark

**See the end for author's notes.**

" _He-hey there dude, glad you're back,  
The last security guard just couldn't pick up the slack,  
So now you're the new guy picking up the job?  
So just please understand this nightmare never stops!"  
_

* * *

 **Chapter 2. There's a Place in the Dark**

Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria sat alone and slouched under a blanket of clouds.

Rain was pouring down over the world, and something about how dismal and gray it was seemed almost poetic. Somewhere, thunder rolled. Several seconds later, almost a full minute, a streak of lightning flickered from roughly the same direction. The restaurant sat alone and defiant, with its boarded up windows and padlocked door.

Danny Fitzgerald sat in his mom's car and stared through the windshield. The car's windshield wipers swung back and forth, back and forth. Once, between its movements Danny thought he saw a figure behind the glass door, but then the wiper swept by again and took rain and any trick-of-the-light, _not quite_ _there_ ghostly figures with it.

The young man tore his gaze reluctantly from the old boarded up building to look down at the backpack. It was sitting innocently in the seat next to him, slumped over like some mortally wounded animal. Inside laid the flashlight he had brought with him. Two days ago he'd found it—or had it found him?—and now here he was, back again. With built up sick days and a visit to his mother, Danny had ended up wandering back to the restaurant he used to work. It wasn't just to return Mike's flashlight—that was worrying, the guy never went anywhere without it—nor was it because of the strange cryptic message from the Mad Hatter to Alice about a rabbit.

Well, those things had something to do with his arrival, yes. But the biggest reason was easily the message he had found on his laptop. The chilling, crackly audio file that he had listened to the same night he found the flashlight. He didn't want to listen to it again, but he pulled out his phone, found the file and hit Play because maybe there was something he had missed. After a second cough of static, Mike Schmidt's weary voice came in loud and clear.

" _Well, if you're hearing this…then I have officially bitten off more than I can chew. I mean, it's my own fault really but the others shouldn't have been dragged into it. Whoever finds this, I'm assuming you found a flashlight, right? Don't bother trying new batteries, it won't work by now."_ It hadn't, but Danny had tried anyway.A tired sigh sounded from the recording.

" _Hang on to it though, if you can. It might start working again. Listen, there's something bad going on here. This message is only as a last resort. Heh, looks like I finally found my curtain call, huh? I've…I've been working around the clock to get my latest project up. But I can't keep these things off my tail any longer. The key is in my locker, my locker is under my desk, and you need to get some back up before you go any farther._

 _And for fuck's sake, I hope you know what you're getting into."_

"… _I can't believe how long I've been doing this now. 10 years, sheesh. Where has my life gone? Anyway, before I forget, I want to make sure you understand. Before you go to the address in the flashlight, you need to get to—"_

A scuffle of noise, and dull banging that grew rapidly. _"Shit, shit! Just, just follow the directions, and everything will be fine. Find Freddy and the others, that's very important! They'll know what to do, they can stop her from—ah, no, c'mon_ _ **don't**_ _—"_

The recording cut off, but not before a strange collision of metal and flesh could be heard striking together. Danny killed the playback, suppressing a shiver that had nothing to do with the cold wind outside. Whatever had happened to cut Mike's recording short, it certainly didn't sound good.

The wind threw a splatter of rain drops against the car, dragging Danny back to the present.

The old restaurant. He unlocked the door and got out, hurrying to the overhang to stand out of the storm's path. Whatever had or was happening, he needed to stop here first like Mike said. To go into a situation without any back up would only put his boss in worse danger. To say nothing of what might happen to Danny himself, after all. Besides, Danny would feel better with the old animatronics on his side, because surely they wouldn't let anything happen to Mike.

He needed the key, which was in a locker, which was under Mike's desk. Simple enough.

Danny stared at the padlock, groaning. No, not that simple.

There had to be another way in…

And there was. The window that he recalled was for the Prize Room was busted. Either by teens or something else, Danny didn't know. He was grateful for the fact that _most_ of the glass on the bottom pane was completely gone. So Danny wasn't in danger of slicing himself open even if he did slip. Once he hauled himself up and through, the kid clambered to the sticky tile, wincing as he felt glass on his palms. Luckily he didn't cut himself there either, and his jeans were thick enough that kneeling wasn't a problem either. What was a serious problem was how _dark_ it was. Danny stood slowly, keeping his hands on the wall and following it toward the door sat, this one lead to the long hall which eventually turned into the Left hall. Something crinkled under his sneakers, but he recognized them swiftly as nothing more than leaf litter.

How _long_ had that window been busted?

Danny shivered and left the Prize Room behind, walking into an even darker hall. Every shadow was still, the tile was dusty and scuffed and he couldn't see an inch in front of his face. Even waving his hand yielded zero results, and when he tried the flashlight, nothing happened.

"Oh...kay. _Think_ , Fitz. Standing in the Prize Room, facing out…left is the back exit. Right is the West wing…and the office." With a determined nod, he began groping his way toward the south end of the restaurant. It was slow going and several times he heard a soft skitter ahead of him but nothing that meant killer animatronics heading his way. Besides, the gang was good and the Nightmares were nothing more than a memory.

The thunder mumbled absently outside, and despite being indoors Danny realized it was slowly getting louder. The light from an errant bolt of lightning briefly illuminated the hall at the far end, but didn't stick around for Danny to get a good read on the situation. Suddenly his fingers hit something soft but heavy and Danny stood there uselessly.

For a moment all he could do was clutch at it blindly until he realized what it was.

"Foxy! …Foxy?" He held on to the grimy, stiff curtains and craned his hearing to try and catch something. No answer came from Pirate's Cove, and Danny frowned. Something felt…wrong. He stumbled on his way, crying out when his sneaker connected with something and it went rolling away. A clang rang throughout the hall. Danny felt down, hands falling in the darkness along the tile carefully. His fingers met a round cylindrical shape and he quickly pulled it up with him, fingers finding a switch.

This flashlight worked, and Danny wanted to thank whoever had left this it here, near Pirate's Cove. Odd, that it was just lying on the floor, though. Danny turned and shoved aside the purple curtain, thinking to himself that just because Foxy hadn't answered didn't mean he wasn't—

The Cove was empty.

For the first time, a different sort of fear made Danny's heart race and then plummet. No Foxy, no ship prop, no fake painted water. His stage was dusty and dark and grim.

Fitzgerald turned the way he had come, suddenly feeling an unexplainable urge to see the Dining Hall. Which was where the main stage was. _That_ couldn't be empty to, could it?

Standing in the doorway holding the big swinging door, Danny swept the flashlight's beam across the long tall room.

The chairs were mostly gone, and what few remained were broken or on their last legs. The tables were stacked and piled. Only the arcade's games were in their place, but inches of dust and grime muted their colors, and even the titles. Danny thought back to when he used to watch Mike work on them for hours, or how Freddy wiped them down every night. Now their theatrical fonts were no longer legible anymore.

The ex-day guard quickly turned the light toward where the Main Stage loomed to his far left.

Not a robot in sight.

The stage's wide set of drapes was moth and mouse eaten, and so dusty it was gray instead of purple and white. Thunder sounded again, threateningly closer. It sounded rather like a warning, Danny thought to himself. Without the rows of tables and chair or the towering animatronics, the Dinging Hall seemed more like an old ballroom. Abandoned, lost to time and very tired. Any traces of fear had folded to chilly unease as Danny listened to the silence that hung over the restaurant. Time hadn't been kind to Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria, but now it seemed like the restaurant had been left behind altogether, as the world moved on and turned its back on it. There was one man Danny new that would never turn away from Freddy's, or its animatronic cast, but he was missing too. That, and the picture that was being painted wasn't one with a good outlook.

"What the hell even _happened_ here?" Danny asked, his voice echoing in the mostly barren room.

He was somewhat expecting—and maybe hoping—for an answer. But none came.

For some reason, that just cemented his apprehension even more.

* * *

The office gave Danny a little bit more to explore. It had to, since Mike had specifically told him to check under his desk for a key of some sorts, which would be in a locker.

When he got down on hands and knees and aimed the flashlight, a whole family of spiders stared back at him. Danny made a face and leaned away before he disturbed their cobweb mansion, not finding anything that remotely resembled a locked. He felt confusion take over, but looked past the cobweb clutter to spot a familiar box. Even dusty and threadbare, there was no mistaking that old Present Box with its purple bow. Well, Danny didn't see a key, or a locker and just saw the box. But this was Mike, and the restaurant was in bad shape and seemed pretty exposed to the elements nowadays. His boss wouldn't make finding a key that easy, would he? Of course not. Danny sighed, closed his eyes and reached in and grabbed the box by its bow. When it slid out, there was some resistance, so it wasn't empty like he assumed. He wondered if anyone else who might have stumbled on this—and didn't know what it was or what it had _been_ —thought exactly the same thing Danny had. It was easy to assume after all.

To Mike's credit, there was a key in the Puppet's old gift box. As well as a thin leather journal, some double-A batteries, a Gameboy and the tablet. Worryingly, there was one more thing in the box, and it was Freddy's microphone. Danny left everything alone but the key and, upon second thought, grabbed the journal too.

The key was taped to a piece of folded paper. This paper, when opened, revealed a messy sheet with random notes, measurements and roughly sketched diagrams.

' _Parts and Services.'_ The paper read at the top. Danny frowned but backtracked. Walking through the barren Dining Hall was something he hoped to avoid, but he stuck close to the walls and tried to ignore the sensation of being watched. Flicking the flashlight behind him just reminded him the arcade games were there, and that he was here alone in this suddenly massive seeming room. He hoped he was alone, at any rate.

The little key cheerfully opened Parts and Services without much hassle. And while the Dining Hall had seen better days, Parts and Services was clearly more lived in. Well, not lived in persay, but there was less dust. Danny's flashlight fell on a large metal box on the wall, shiny and relatively new looking. Above it read 'power' which was odd since Danny thought the circuit breakers were by the back door. Had Mike moved them? And if he had, why were they behind a locked door now? Mike had either gotten paranoid as the years passed or he was playing it safe for a good reason. The mystery was ever growing, but everything was better when you could shed a little light on the subject. Danny decided the only way he was going to get more answers—and ever feel remotely comfortable—was to get the lights on.

Easier said than done.

After flicking two switches and realizing nothing was happening, Danny remembered the paper he had found with the key. He had thought the giant breaker box looked familiar, and he was right.

It was drawn on the faded piece of paper.

The paper itself was scribbled over with notes and calculations on things Danny couldn't make heads or tails of. The one thing he _did_ recognize was that it was all in familiar handwriting. Not only that, there was a short phrase at the very bottom, written in pen while everything else was in pencil. Unless Mike had switched tools in one session, it was safe to assume the pen had been written at a different date than the pencil, right?

 _Rattle his bones over the stones. He's only a poor bunny, who nobody owns. -M_

"Rattle his…?" Danny sucked in all his air and let it out through his nose. He glanced helplessly from the piece of paper to the set of switches. There were eight in all, but when Danny turned them all on there was the sound of an electrical disjuncture and the place flashed to life, then abruptly—and rather irritably—just went dark again.

"Overloaded it, damn." Danny flicked them all off, and tried half of them. He leaned out of Parts and Services, noticing half the Dining hall was illuminated, and so was the kitchen too, possibly.

"Close…" He added another, and frowned when one row of lights turned on but another that was previously light flickered and died. The kitchen was dark now.

"Dammit, Mike." Danny cursed softly. "What the hell is this _for_?"

After a few more failed attempts, he flipped open the journal as a last resort. Danny aimed the ugly black flashlight on some pages. There was a list of rules on the very first page, which struck Danny as odd. Mike wasn't really a big rule follower, though he did enforce safety precautions. Not only _that_ , was that the first rule, which was highlighted, was this:

 _1\. Conserve Power._

"Thanks. Big help, Mike." Danny grumbled, flipping absently through the rest of the book. Finally he came on a page that had another loose drawing that looked like the switches before him. Except these had something else the key's paper didn't have. Underneath them were words. Bones, Poor, Bunny, Stones, Nobody, Who, Rattle and Owns.

Danny mouthed the random string of words twice until it hit him. He jerked to life and grabbed the one that would be above to the word Rattle on the drawing.

"Rattle…his bones," Danny pulled down another one. He ignored the light show behind, and instead focused on pulling the correct levers that corresponded with the weird little rhyme. "Over the Stones…he's just a poor bunny…who nobody…owns."

There was a sudden growl of a generator, and it held steady. The restaurant's lights came fully on, and Danny squinted.

"What did that even mean—?" He didn't have to wonder for long.

Suddenly there was a whine of servos behind him, and the kid turned slowly to his left.

There was a hulking figure leaning on the bench, and now Danny could finally see it. There was also the mess of wires connecting the rotted monster to the walls and ceiling, and even a laptop.

A broken ear switched upward, followed by the roll of a great rotted head. Chipped, stained eyelids lifted but stopped at half mast, giving the robot an eternally exhausted and tired stare. The eyes locked onto Danny and for a moment the world was silent.

It was then Danny realized what rabbit the Hatter had told Alive to follow in Mike's rhyme. It hadn't been about his Bonnie at all, but a different sort of Bonnie. The first one, if he recalled correctly.

Springtrap's illuminated silver gaze fell on a confused and rather frightened Danny Fitzgerald.

Springtrap pulled its torso away from the wall, sitting up better. The rotted rabbit's head lolled, something in its neck cracking and creaking as the rabbit went through what were apparently habitual movements to loosen its joints from its stiff prison.

"W-what are you-?!" Danny squawked. After a beat, Springtrap's rotted smile—which didn't meet its glowing optics—moved with the crunch that resembled rawhide breaking. Bits of tendon fell away like ice cracking off a roof from its mangled up mouth.

"What _was_ I is a more appropriate question." Springtrap looked around slowly, lazily. It flexed its hand and stared at it resignedly. "How odd. Do you know what this means?"

"No…what?" Danny asked after he could breathe again. But Springtrap's response made him feel cold all over again. When Springtrap moved, it came forward with a great creaking force, leaning close to tell Danny softly, seriously:

"It means the night guard is _lost_."

* * *

 **Chapter 2's song is 'Not Here All Night' by DAGames. Of course, it is a song about Phone Guy and Phone Dude, that's true. But for this story, I think it's mentioning a certain other security guard we just can't seem to find. I'm sure Mike's alright, he has the flashlight after—oh, wait.**


	4. Death is a Charade

**See the end for author's notes.**

" _Well I have a theory, yeah I heard a rumor,  
there was a murmur of purple and murder…"  
_

* * *

 **Chapter 3. Death Is a Charade**

Danny took a stumbling step back, connecting with the long bench that took up the entire room.

"What, what do you mean he _lost_?" The kid demanded, eyes widening as Springtrap lurched. But that lurch was, apparently, intentional. The rotted green and yellow rabbit pushed it's creaking and cracking body away from the wall. Metal feet hit the ground with twin clangs, and the rabbit swayed upright before settling into a small lean to the right. It kept on hand on the bench for balance but the silver optics never left Danny's gaze. Springtrap studied the human calmly.

"Mike doesn't lose—" He stopped at the expression on Springtrap's face.

"It's exactly what I said. He was here before, now he's not. He lost." It sounded so simpler than it was when Springtrap drawled on like that.

"What did he lose, then?" Danny demanded, suddenly wishing Bonnie were here. Hell, he'd even take Freddy at this point.

Springtrap observed Danny in much the same manner the human was observing the bunny. Spring's suit clicked as it slouched rustily toward the door.

"If you've gotten this far, you know why he's gone missing. And you know _where_ , most importantly." Springtrap rasped, his speaker sounded clogged and his voice was tired and thick. Danny blinked and as Springtrap passed him, he dug out the folded piece of paper with the address on it.

"Freddy's sister location? He's _there_?" Danny asked.

Springtrap paused out in the hall, looking over his mottled shoulder. Danny hesitantly joined the rabbit's side, swallowing at the sheer height Springtrap had on him.

"I believe it's called Circus Baby's Pizza World." A pregnant pause. "Well, it _was_ , once upon a time. Don't you think it's strange, how empty it is here?"

"Well— _yeah_ , of course. I mean, I figure Mike took the robots with him, and…" He trailed off when he noticed Spring was staring at him again. The rabbit either wasn't capable of raising its eyelid plates higher than halfway, or it didn't care to. Every look was mostly tired with other varying emotions sitting behind the fatigue. Idly, Danny wondered how many of those years it took to get Springtrap up and running again, as it were.

"Not that sort of empty. What is your name and position here?" Springtrap suddenly asked. It was so polite and expectant Danny didn't know what to say.

"Uh—I'm Danny Fitzgerald but, well I don't _work_ here—"

"Fitzgerald?" Springtrap's systems wheezed but kept steady. Suddenly those glowing eyes were focused so intently on Danny he could only freeze in place.

"I see. You're related to Jeremy Fitzgerald. Son, perhaps? Or has it been long enough for you to be a grandson, I wonder?"

"No, no I'm his son…or, was or something." Now Danny hurried after Springtrap with more ease, his heart picking up in excitement instead of terror. Springtrap was horrifying to look at and smelled worse than anything he'd come across in his young life…but the rabbit seemed pretty harmless. He wouldn't want to get grabbed by those exposed metal fingers, though. All the tetnus shots in the world wouldn't save him.

"You knew my father?" If so, he had about a hundred questions to ask the rabbit.

"I did." But Springtrap didn't divulge anything further. "Did you take over his position? Are you…a _night guard_?" The words were almost said reverently.

Danny stopped a second to consider this. He glanced around the vacant, hollow Dining Hall. His shoulders slumped at the misery of this place.

"I, I was the _day_ guard a few years ago." He explained, feeling embarrassed. "But I…moved away."

"I see. Quit? Get fired?"

"No! No, nothing like that." Danny covered quickly. "I had to go to college and I guess, well, Mike couldn't call me in anymore so he just stopped calling and…"

No, he didn't get fired. Technically, he didn't quit either. He just left. Somehow, that made what he had done worse.

Springtrap wasn't looking at him anymore. The bunny was looking around with vague, absent interest at the room. Those strangely light optics clicked over to the stage and he shuffled toward it, laying a metal hand on the wood. Some of it was rotting, because there were holes in the ceiling and the rain and snow had long ago found a path through.

"You moved on." Springtrap finished. It wasn't said cruelly, but Danny still felt a sting of shame.

"Yeah." What else could he say? Any argument felt silly. Springtrap was clever, and beyond that he seemed to see right through him. Whenever the bunny aimed his half-lidded gaze at him Fitzgerald had to suppress a shiver.

"You need to find Fredbear." Springtrap suddenly said. "Both of them, to be honest. I know where the night guard is and I know why he hasn't returned. But as to where he is _exactly_ , or where the others are…I don't know that. Time isn't on our side, day guard."

Danny swallowed, but didn't correct the rotted rabbit. "Are you…obviously Mike wanted me to wake you up but can you…make it? To the sister location?"

At this, Springtrap glanced over his shoulder and looked down at Danny with a slightly amused—and forever weary—look. It was almost playful, and it reminded him of Bonnie so much his chest ached.

"I _think_ I can manage to stay in one piece." Springtrap teased lightly, and the human's ears went pink.

"That isn't—I'm sorry, I didn't mean—" Danny blustered uselessly.

"No matter." Springtrap was good-humored but apparently not insulted. "I understand my look isn't cosmetically pleasing or comforting. Nor is it terribly stable.

But I still have a little…. _spring_ in my step."

At this moment, Springtrap turned and calmly found a particular slat of wood on the stage. He wrenched a piece of the stage up. The old board resisted, this one wasn't rotten yet, but Springtrap simply lifted his metal and bone arm until it snapped cleanly off, exposing the stage's electrical workings and a good sized hole.

"H-hey!" Danny rushed to Springtrap's side, reaching out to stop him but pausing uneasily, arms outstretched, when he remembered what was in the springlock suit. "Stop! What are you doing!? That's—"

The human stopped as Springtrap reached down into the darkness, his eyes illuminating the black storage space. The bunny leaned back with a ring of keys carefully hanging between his metal, tendon encrusted fingers. Danny gaped.

"Mike put those there?" He clarified quickly, taking them when Spring held them out for him. Danny recognized most of the tinkling keys save for two or three. He glanced at the broken board and saw how new the nails looked compared to the other nails holding the stage down. Springtrap nodded.

"He did."

"But then—he locked them in here? _This_ is the key to the front door, and—" Danny recalled the name of the padlock stamped into the metal. This key was for the padlock, this one for the back door…the Prize Room…they were all here.

"How did he…"

"You haven't worked here in a while, day guard." Springtrap said, and while it wasn't a scold, it was close. "You of all us should remember the night guard's ability when it comes to doors. Rarely are they needed to move."

Danny connected the pieces in his mind. When Mike had left, he had abandoned the keys to this hiding spot. In an effort to protect Freddy's? Or Springtrap? And when he had left, he still had the working flashlight. Danny could see the thin, shaggy haired man locking everything he could from the inside, meticulously. Then pulling out that strange flashlight, aiming its beam at a doorway and walking through into the golden glow and ending up outside, where his car and the van always sat—

 _The van._

He hadn't seen the van when he came in. That's how the gang had left!

"…right." Danny did remember now. He just felt sad, wishing Mike himself were here. "Right, I…I guess I did forget." But he sure as hell remembered now.

Whatever had made Mike lock up from the inside out and abandon both Freddy's Pizzeria and Springtrap wasn't anything good. Danny swallowed, hooked the keys to his belt along with the working flashlight, and felt like a small man in a big business suit. He wasn't a guard anymore. He didn't even belong here. He was Mike's last resort. His only backup was Springtrap, he was missing his best friend and was facing some unknown danger not even his boss could conquer. And his boss could do anything, Danny used to think.

Worst of all, Springtrap was looking at him expectantly.

"We should leave now."

Danny nodded, not trusting his voice all of a sudden.

They stayed long enough to turn off the generator, casting the restaurant back into its sleepy state of darkness. By some miracle it had stopped raining when they left the pizzeria. The two odd companions took the back door where the forest sat, since the wooden boards and padlock would only keep the restaurant somewhat safe for a bit longer. Danny locked the door behind Springtrap and glanced up at the night sky. The clouds let one splatter of white stars gleam down, but there was no moon. Thunder mumbled somewhere to the west, and Springtrap's good ear twitched toward it.

They walked along the tarmac toward the front of the restaurant. Springtrap kept good pace with Danny, which surprised him but he held his tongue. He remembered the ease Spring had just broken that thick piece of wood and decided he wouldn't have a problem travelling. Let alone anything else they might encounter—heck, even a Nightmare animatronic would probably mistake Springtrap before attacking him. Not that those existed anymore, but Danny had no other comparison.

The storm had stopped, sure, so why did Danny feel like nothing was over?

Except maybe some silly form of childhood naivety, actually. Funny, the whole episode with Nightmare seemed simple and almost boring compared to whatever awaited them at former Circus Baby's. More animatronics? Humans, this time? Conjoined animatonics and humans…like whatever the hell Springtrap was? Danny's mind only swirled on in a relentless pattern of thoughts, each mystery more terrifying than the last. By the time he settled on a monstrous form that looked like Nightmare combined with _more_ animatronics (because what was worse than one animatronic, but four or five _just put together_ , right?) Danny had to finally admit that now he was being ridiculous now. His imagination had gotten away with him, trying to make up overwhelming dragons for his knight guard boss to fight.

He was sure nothing like _that_ existed.

Springtrap didn't fit in the front seat of his mom's car, but he did manage to wedge himself into the back. The body of the car sank a little on the tires, but that was it. Springtrap was apparently lighter than he looked. Danny wondered why Mike had never removed the body in Spring, but decided against asking. He remembered the animatronics and how human they could be. The more they liked you the more inclined they were to look out for you. And this creepy, terrifying bunny was his first—and only—line of defense until he found the other four or, better yet, found Mike. Better then, to stay on good terms with Springtrap, who did seem to genuinely like him. Or at least, not hate him.

Danny got into the driver's side and hauled the door closed.

He made the mistake of looking at the restaurant's front windows. A black bear face with white teeth grinned back at him for a split second. Danny trembled. Springtrap noticed.

"Remember: Nowhere in the middle of the nursery, does it state Humpty Dumpty was an _egg_." Springtrap told Danny with a deadly serious expression. When the human looked into the rear view mirror to meet Springtrap's gaze, the black shadow was gone in a wink.

The restaurant lay dead again.

Danny made an uneasy noise, but nodded. "I'll…I'll keep that in mind, thanks."

"Good."

It was easy to tell himself that what he had seen was a trick of the light, and nothing more. So Danny did. We all have our own ways of staying sane, after all.

With Springtrap's strange little sentiment echoing in his ears, Danny used shaking fingers to log the address into the GPS of his mom's car.

And hoped to whoever was listening they weren't too late.

* * *

 **Springtrap and Danny to the rescue! To the Guest who offered to beta my story: Thank you for the offer but betaing won't increase the speed of uploads. Chapters get written in my own time. Thank you though! Plus my notes are atrocious; I would have to scan them off scraps of paper and tissues. I put every single knight guard note/rough idea into one single, terribly rambly document too...  
**

 **Secondly, on a note to That Speedhunter: I appreciate the review! However, I don't write for popularity, and in any case,** _ **London Bridge**_ **got much less attention. People don't have to read this if they don't enjoy the reality of the situation. I'm also not a fan of happy endings all the time. Yes, the restaurant is closed down and time wasn't kind to anything so far, but that's how life is. Besides, the entire FNAF situation isn't exactly the most fairy tale ending, so for me it fits to remind the reader that Time sadly has a way of degrading everything. Even machines. _Especially_ machines, actually. (And we all know someone who is at least _half_ machine in this story. And I'm not talking about Springtrap.)  
**

 **Thirdly—as a general note to all—I am currently in the process of moving. I think I said the same thing in** _ **Devil's Spine**_ **. Well, it's still fucking going on, and it's a huge hassle and incredibly frustrating. The house is at least built. (Yes, it did take almost 7 months to build.) No, updates will not come quickly for _Finding Freddy._ Yes, I will finish this story. Even if it kills me. Or Mike. Either way.**

 **Chapter 3's song is 'Built in the 80's' by Griffnilla and Toastwaffle.**


	5. Stage Fright

**See the end for author's note.**

" _The fun is starting,  
A celebration that lasts eternity,  
I'm always watching,  
Because somebody purple murdered me!"_

* * *

 **Chapter 4. Stage Fright**

Circus Baby's Pizza World was _not_ what Danny was expecting.

It wasn't even close to resembling the squat, brightly painted little building that they had just driven from. Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria seemed eons away, instead of just a couple hundred miles or so. Come to think of it, Danny's entire life seemed out of reach now. All he had was Springtrap, who was at least good company in the form of patience and reliability. Glancing warily up at black windows that stood three levels high, Danny double checked that they had the right address.

"This is…this is it." He said, sounding unsure as ever.

It was large, gray, and had series of windows. It looked like an old warehouse, but one peek through a glassless window showed the place had been mostly gutted of any personality by now. if anything, it could easily be mistaken for a vacant car garage, but there was no one around driving at this hour. Come to think of it, Danny hadn't seen _any_ other cars or pedestrians for a couple of blocks now. That was good, because it was hard to explain Springrap, but it also made the hairs on the back of Fitzgerald's neck stand to attention.

"Erhh…" Suddenly, Danny wondered if he should have just stayed at the hotel he had just gotten, and waited until tomorrow morning.

"The key, day guard." Springtrap was offering the little key ring.

Taking his nervous green gaze from the cloudy night sky, Danny fumbled until he found the right key. The door slid open noiselessly, which struck Danny as odd. He expected anything to do with this cavernous building to be noisy and unkempt.

Danny shut the door behind him, having let Springtrap lurch his way inside first.

"I…remember this place." Springtrap spoke suddenly, in that soft tired tone Danny was getting used to hearing.

"You do?" Danny asked excitedly. Some progress!

"Yes." Springtrap's good ear leaned forward and he followed it. Danny followed him. Their footsteps left paths in the dust, and the lack of light didn't let them see the sneaker pattern they were scuffing up.

"We need to use this elevator." Springtrap stopped walking, having crossed the dimly lit floor, and pointed.

"Uh…and go where?"

But Springtrap just shook his head slowly. Apparently, that was there the memories ended. Still, he had been right about everything else so far, so Danny put his trust in the yellow bunny and tugged on the lever to call the elevator. He was honestly surprised when he heard the whine of a generator and the chug of machinery.

They waited.

Without anything else to do, and too nervous to just stand there in the empty warehouse, Danny flipped through Mike's journal. With driving he hadn't had time to really read through it, and even now he didn't really have a long moment to spare. He settled on the list of rules he had seen earlier, right at the front of the leather bound book. He'd read the first one, so what was the second one?

 _2\. Check your blindspots._

With a frustrated sigh, Danny closed the book and tucked it away. What was _that_ referencing? He felt like there was a reason, that Mike was saying this because he had heard it from someone else or learned the hard way. But…maybe not.

The elevator was here.

"Ready?" He asked Springtrap, but he didn't know why. Of course the animatronic was ready. Springtrap's little look said he was asking the same thing mentally. Still, his new companion nodded, the action smooth but squelchy, and stepped alongside the human into the wide area.

The doors closed and soon, the sensation of sinking hit Danny's stomach as the elevator took them down, down…

Without warning, a loud, cheerful male voice came through the speaker above them.

" _Welcome to the first day of your exciting new career!"_

Springtrap calmly watched Danny jump and clutch his heart. Decidin the human was alright—just startled—the bunny turned to look back up at the ceiling, his ear trained on the audio coming through it.

" _Whether you were approached at a job fair, read our ad in Screws, Bolts, and Hairpins, or if this is the result of a dare, we welcome you. I will be your personal guide to help you get started. I'm a model 5 of the Handyman's Robotics and Unit Repair System. But, you can call me "Handy-Unit"."_

Danny shuddered. HandyUnit sounded anything but handy. It sounded crisp, cheerful, and dull. Maybe Danny was already used to Springtrap's calm and human mannerisms, but for some reason this HandyUnit's cheerful male voice just made the hairs on the back of the kid's neck crawl even worse than before.

" _Your new career promises challenge, intrigue, and endless janitorial opportunities. Please enter your name as seen above the keypad. This cannot be changed later, so, please be careful."_

A keypad in the center of the floor jerked up, screen flickering. But that wasn't what was interesting about it. What was interesting about it was the HandyUnit's comment about the name above the keypad.

"Mike!" Danny would recognize that hand writing anywhere. "So he _was_ here, but…what should I do?"

Springtrap was studying the walls, looking for something apparently. "When in Rome…it's best to follow the programming. Try entering Operator's name and see if the AI notices you are not him."

"Uh, right." Easier said than done. Springtrap watched in faint enjoyment as Danny tried—and failed—to enter Mike's name in the glitch keypad.

" _It seems that you had some trouble with the keypad. I see what you were trying to type, and I will autocorrect it for you. One moment…_

 _Welcome, Eggs Benedict!"_

"That answers our question, then." Springtrap sounded faintly amused and a little smug. Danny realized why; it meant the AI talking to them just wasn't as sharp as Springtrap himself. He supposed, if he were a robot like Spring, he might like to know the competition as well. And it would make him feel good—even as decomposed as he was—to know his mental hardware was still in better condition than the Stepford Wives' HandyUnit creep.

"Eggs, huh?" Danny thought of his easy going boss laughing at HandyUnit, and telling him it was okay, that the AI was trying its best. He was hit with another pang of sadness, wishing the man were here now with them. Mike would know what to do.

Suddenly, the elevator lurched to a stop, and the fans died down. Danny stumbled, while Spring calmly stayed rooted to the spot. Worse than the fans stopping, the lights went out inside the cramped room. Before Danny could ask, Springtrap's silver optics flashed bright, casting illuminated beams of light before them. The left one flickered poorly, before dimming a great deal, but Danny politely said nothing.

Some light was better than none at all, right?

" _You can now open the elevator using that bright, red, and obvious button. Let's get to work!"_

The doors shot open. The rabbit's optics swung down to stare at the area before them.

Yellow danger tape was stretched over the tops and sides, and below them was an open, gaping crawlspace. It did not appear to have its own light source, so Danny wasn't quite sure where it led to.

One thing was for sure…

"I will not fit." Springtrap's blank tone filled the awkward silence. Danny turned to him, feeling a little bit desperate.

"There has to be another way in—don't you think?"

"Doubtful." Springtrap was looking around. Outside the elevator was a short square of space, directly across from them was the crawlspace. "This place seems…familiar. I _think_ this is all there is, day guard." The rotted rabbit looked around before deciding.

"I can take the elevator back up and look for another way in. Stairs, maybe? Either way; you'll have to go in there by yourself." Springtrap watched him blankly. "Are you afraid?"

"Uh…yeah. A little." See: a lot.

"Fear is natural. It is what you do about your fear that makes you human."

Danny nodded, wondering if he looked as pale as he felt. With a faint goodbye to Spring, the human knelt down and, ignoring the Danger tape, pushed into the cramped crawlspace.

He was relieved when he heard a grinding of gears and servos whining. Light leaked over his shoulders and cast some light. Springtrap wouldn't leave him until he couldn't be of use anymore, and Danny felt a rush of affection for the scary bunny.

Using his elbows and hips, Danny commando-crawled into the unknown.

" _Allow me to fill this somewhat frightening silence with some lighthearted banter."_

"Ow!" Danny rubbed his head from where he'd banged it against the ceiling. "Loud enough?" HandyUnit either didn't hear him, or was choosing to ignore him.

" _Due to the massive success, and, even more so, the unfortunate closing of Freddy Fazbear's Resturant, it was clear that the stage was set (no pun intended) for another contender in children's entertainment. Unlike most entertainment venues, our robotic entertainers are rented out for private parties during the day, and it's your job to get the robots back in proper working order before the following morning."_

"The closing…" Danny almost stopped crawling, until he realized where he had stopped.

"Wait, did you call it the restaurant?" The restaurant. Something about it being called that—and not _the pizzeria_ —wiggled in the back of Danny's brain. Quickly, he hurried on, but filed away that interesting tid-bit for later. If _Circus Baby's_ had only opened after the pizzeria closed, Mike wouldn't have known about it until then. But if it had opened during the restaurant's era—when his dad worked there—then why hadn't Mike known about it? Of course, Danny often felt his former boss had a sixth sense of this sort of stuff. He might have known about it all along and just not done anything about it. Briefly, Danny realized he forgot to ask how long Springtrap had been online.

The bunny _must_ know more than he was letting on.

His journey through the vents left him feeling lightheaded, claustrophobic and a bit like a rat. He and Springtrap were trespassing but Danny hadn't seen a living thing so far, and HandyUnit wasn't asking questions. It just seemed to expect a job to be done.

What that job _was_ , though…

Well, Danny was hoping it would be something he was used to. He was wrong.

" _You are now in the primary Control Module; it's actually a crawlspace between the two front showrooms. Now, let's get started with your daily tasks. View the window to your left. This is the Ballora Gallery: Party Room and Dance Studio, encouraging kids to get fit and enjoy pizza! Let's turn on the light and see if Ballora is onstage. Press the blue button on the elevated keypad to your left."_

Danny glanced warily around the shadowed, cramped circular Module room and fought a shiver. The weird white face of a puppet-thing smiled emptily across the area. Animatronic heads on sticks were blinking every so often. He turned his attention toward the window on his left, but didn't see anything. Obviously it was a room of some sort, apparently a party room and dance studio. What the hell?

" _Press the blue button on the elevated keypad to your left."_ HandyUnit suddenly repeated in its friendly, 1950's tone. Danny did so.

HandyUnit seemed to have eyes everywhere, because no sooner had a stage far across the party room illuminated when the AI spoke up.

" _Uh oh! It looks like Ballora doesn't feel like dancing. Let's give her some motivation. Press the red button now to administer a controlled shock. Maybe that will put the spring back in her step."_

"Give her a what!?" Danny yelped, drawing back in horror. Granted, he didn't know if these robots were anything like his friends—like Bonnie—but something still felt wrong about this. Most likely, it was because he had spent a month under Mike's tutelage. Machines, even the lifeless ones like the arcade games, could be sweet-talked and spoken to so they might want to work better. Danny saw other guys in the factory that spit and kick at the mechanical workers beside them, but he could never quite bring himself to do the same.

"I don't want to _shock it,_ what the hell man—"

But HandyUnit did not respond. Danny turned and saw that behind him…the vent door had closed without so much as a sound. Oh, okay. That was fine. He turned back to the control panel and saw the little bolt of lightning on the bottom red button.

"Christ…" Taking a deep breath, Danny leaned forward and touched the bottom square section of the pad. He quickly removed his finger when he heard the sound of thousands of volts being shoved somewhere. Briefly, Danny apologized to whatever it was he'd just electrocuted, and also Mike.

" _Let's check the light again."_ Now, Danny could see a slender, human-shaped figure jerking from one ballet pose to the next. She was either elevated on her stage or she was insanely tall, he couldn't tell which. Ballora, it had said? Well, this Ballora didn't look _too_ worse for wear. Hopefully the HandyUnit would leave her alone now…

" _Excellent. Ballora's feeling like her old self again and will be ready to perform again tomorrow."_

"Fuck you man." Danny whispered under his breath, but HandyUnit went on cheerfully.

" _Now, view the window to your right. This is the Funtime auditorium where Funtime Foxy encourages kids to play and share. Try the light! Let's see what Funtime Foxy is up to."_

"Funtime Fox—Foxy?" At last, a familiar name, but that made it that much harder to suddenly press that damn button. Danny thought back to the Foxy he knew, and winced. One volt of electricity would have sent the old sea captain to pieces, he was in that bad shape. Danny couldn't imagine he had gotten any better over the course of a decade, even with Mike repairing him.

Of course, _this_ Funtime Foxy probably wasn't the one Danny remembered, but still. Begging silently, Danny hit the blue button, hoping that Foxy was on his stage.

It was empty.

" _Looks like Funtime Foxy is taking the day off. Let's motivate Funtime Foxy with a controlled shock."_

"Foxy? Can you hear me?" Danny tried to see through the glass, because the light button was no longer working. "If you can, you gotta go to your stage…Foxy?"

" _Let's motivate Funtime Foxy with a controlled shock."_

"Oh, god…" Danny was suddenly glad the vent was too small for Springtrap. Unfortunately, the AI seemed to have caught on when Danny quickly tapped the lightning button swiftly. The shock was definitely shorter and smaller than the last one Ballora had to endure. Danny hoped he could sneak by just with this.

" _Let's try another controlled shock."_

"Kidding me…" Danny moaned, covered his eyes and hit the button again. Had Mike just let this happen?

The horrific sound of electrocution reverberated through the small round room. A second later,

" _Looks like Funtime Foxy is in perfect working order. Great job! In front of you is another vent shaft. Crawl through it to reach the Circus Gallery Control Module."_

"Circus Gallery, huh?" Danny parroted, half to himself. A few deep breaths later, and a silent wish to whoever was listening he didn't die tonight; Fitzgerald got down on his hands and knees and crawled forward.

" _Motion trigger. Circus Gallery Vent."_ Said a robotic female voice. Danny jumped, heart pounding in his chest until he realized it most likely was talking about him. Spooky, but less spooky than he initially thought.

The room that the vent path opened into was even smaller than the one he had come from. The only remarkable thing was the wide gaping glass windows and the flashing lights and buttons. Somewhere above him fans pushed in oxygen, even giving a bit of a soothing, nice breeze from their force. Danny waited, wondering if HandyUnit was going to speak up.

He wasn't disappointed.

" _On the other side of the glass is Circus Baby's auditorium. Let's check the light and see what Baby is up to."_

Inwardly, Danny wondered this animatronic looked like. Since he had seen both humanoid and animal shaped trons, he could only guess. When Danny hit the light button, there was a click and nothing happened.

" _Looks like a few of the lights are out, but we can fix that later. Let's encourage Baby to cheer up with a controlled shock."_

"What? But I can't even see—what if she _is_ there and you don't know it?" Danny didn't know why he was reasoning with an AI like HandyUnit. Clearly, the damn thing wasn't anything like the Fazgang he was used to.

As Danny delivered the shock of electricity, he wondered again how long Mike had put up with this.

" _Let's try another controlled shock."_

"Oh, man…" Danny closed his eyes for this one. He didn't even reach for the light switch before HandyUnit started up again.

" _Great job, Circus Baby. We knew we could count on you!"_

"God, you're condescending." Danny muttered sullenly.

" _That concludes your duties for your first night on the job. We don't want you to leave overwhelmed; otherwise, you might not come back. Please leave using the vent behind you, and we'll see you again tomorrow."_

But Danny did not leave right away. Mostly because he was still terrified to move, because he thought for sure he was being watched from the other side of that glass. Mostly, because before him was a desk. Well, sort of. The control panel was filled with a litany of buttons and switches and Danny couldn't even begin to tell you what one third of them did. But at least, it was the most 'desk-like' thing he had seen so far down here.

Maybe, just maybe, Mike had left something under this desk for him.

He dropped to rest on his knees and quickly stuck the working flashlight into the darkness. There was, miraculously, a little folded up piece of paper in the front corner. Quickly, he snatched it and read it right there. It was the same handwriting as before.

 _If anything happens to me look in the rule book page two eight zero. -M_

"Rule book, page 280. Got it." Eagerly, Danny clicked the flashlight down to search the underside of the desk a second time. Assuming he had over looked a big rule book or something, he leaned in a bit. The light met a rusty wall, but that was it. Nothing.

"So where _is_ the rule book, Mike?" Danny whispered, as if his boss was going to pop up out of the darkness and answer him. He wasn't that lucky, but he _did_ get an answer from someone.

" _Please leave using the vent behind you, and we'll see you again tomorrow."_ HandyUnit's voice rang a little louder than usual above him, as if the human it was speaking to had gone deaf and was loitering by accident. Danny jumped and clutched his heart, exhaling slowly as he pocketed the little note.

"Jesus, HandyUnit…" The day guard turned the way he had come and started through. Again, the female voice sounded a movement through the vent he was in. He poked out into the control module room, purposefully ignoring the blinking eyes of the heads just…sitting around smiling at nothing. Fighting a shiver, Danny swept his gaze around the room, looking for anything he might have missed.

There was in fact something. Sitting in front of a closed vent door—one that looked suspiciously like it could be opened—was a small paper back. It was sitting in front of the side of the room that led to the Dance Studio, if Danny remembered correctly. And, if he was going to be correct again, he was pretty sure it hadn't been here before. He swiped it quickly, but was hesitant to linger any longer, especially in this room. At least in Circus Baby's it was darker and by association, felt a bit safer.

Danny was already halfway through the last vent system when he heard it. A dull thud was coming along behind him, fainter at first but growing in volume. By the second series of _thuda-thuda-thuda_ , Danny was shimmying faster. The dull scuffing of noise continued, following him all the way down the vent and getting closer and closer until Danny looked up and saw both light and metal feet.

"S-Springtrap!" He called.

At the sound of his name, Springtrap bent down and peered into the darkness of the tunnel, illuminating the area around Danny. The human was almost dizzying grateful for the sudden light. Interestingly, the only sounds of movement now were the ones he was making. There was nothing behind him at all. At least, there wasn't any more.

"How did it go?" Springtrap asked calmly as he watched the human clamber gracelessly out. The bunny had the decency to wait until Danny had caught his breath and didn't feel so lightheaded.

"First off," Danny said between gasps. "I don't think…they pump a lot of oxygen…down here."

"Most likely not." Spring agreed. He followed Danny into the elevator, and hit the button.

"Second…oh god, Spring. It's so weird what they do to them, to their animatronics I mean."

Springtrap listened to Danny tell about his 'first night on the job.' If the bunny had any reaction at all, he showed little of it. While Spring did give a slow half blink when Danny mentioned the controlled shocking, the rotted rabbit didn't comment or react to anything else. Instead, he waited until they were walking across the empty warehouse to comment.

"Did you find the night guard, then?"

"What? Oh, uh…no, but…"

Which jogged Danny's memory of finding the note and the rule book. He pulled the rule book out, and flicked to the correct page. The page itself wasn't anything interesting, just the glossary. But along the inner spine was something that caught Danny's attention.

 _Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead. –M_

Along the bottom of the page, someone, presumably Mike, had written three names.

 _Hazel A.  
Michael A.  
The Marionette _

The last name was the only one crossed out. When Danny read it out loud, Springtrap's ears creaked downward more than usual. The rotted rabbit looked away.

"Arthur." Springtrap said in low, almost _guilty_ , tone. Springtrap didn't say a word the rest of the way back to the hotel.

 **LINEBREAK  
There was a typo that had chapter 3 being labeled as chapter 4. That's fixed now. **

**I'm not gunna lie, I'd LOVE to get into the routine of uploading once every two weeks. Hell, I wish I could promise once a month at that, but I can't right now. The one thing I AM considering doing is a series of episodic chapters. There wouldn't be an over-arching plot, it would literally be me in the sandbox playing, just goofing around with the FNAF characters as I saw fit. In other words, you know those special chapters that are in** _ **Devil's Spine**_ **and** _ **Ghost Strings**_ **? It'd be like those, just those. I could explore themes I wanted in the knight guard au but that I never got around to doing because of Time and Plot and etc.  
**

 **I dunno, it's a thought. It's also a way of getting to write about Mike and the gang more, in less dramatic situations. /glances at the drama that was** _ **Ghost Strings**_

 **Tonight's song is 'Join Us for a Bite' by JT Machinima.**


	6. In Memory of Mike Schmidt

**See the end for author's notes.**

" _It's been years I've been alone in here  
I've forgotten what it's like for me to smell your fear  
Am I driving you insane?  
Am I eating at your brain?"  
_

* * *

 **Chapter 5. In Memory of Mike Schmidt**

The dead don't dream.

For that matter, animatronics aren't really supposed to be able to dream either. Two negatives can still make a positive, however. Because, logically, it was both dead _and_ an animatronic. Then it couldn't be called dreaming, to be honest. It was a computer. Computers could play back files; provided they weren't corrupted. Computers could play just audio back, if need be. The computer must also be using the correct hardware to play said file in any capacity. So, no, computer or animatronics don't dream.

So a dead animatronic that was currently dreaming wasn't _actually_ doing that.

" _I'm not fixing you, not right now."_

It was remembering.

" _Do you see the mess you've made this time?"_

 _SpringBonnie, only slightly used and currently sitting against the wall where he'd been left, was watching the two other figures in his memory. It stayed silent and simply observed, like good obedient robots should do._

 _One figure before Springbonnie lowered its pigtailed covered head in abject remorse. Father was mad._

" _I'm sorry." said a soft, feminine voice._

" _Sorry? You're_ _ **sorry**_ _? Sorry isn't good enough." Then the man's tone went lighter and slower, almost sweeter. SpringBonnie knew it was a trap. "When will you ever learn, darling?"_

 _But the other animatronic hadn't learned yet. This man was a man with two faces. When it heard that gentle tone, the other speaker began speaking again. How dumb of it, SpringBonnie thought._

" _But I_ _am_ _trying, I know I can get it right this time. If we could just have one more party—"_

" _ **Quiet**_ _!" The man's voice rang. SpringBonnie's sensitive, long ears flicked back subtlety. It didn't like when Billy raised his voice like that, but saying so wouldn't fix anything. If anything, it would make it worse for the both of them._

 _At least SpringBonnie was being ignored. That was nice._

" _We'll discuss this later. After you get back from the Scooping Room."_

 _The other figure visibly tensed, and her tone was filled with dread. "No, no please—please, I don't want to go back down there—"_

 _Oh, boy. SpringBonnie shuddered a fraction, but kept it contained. He was supposed to be in Suit Mode after all. The Scooping Room. Spring had never been in there, had only seen what it could do. But seeing was enough to terrify the yellow rabbit just fine, thank you very much. It knew it was lucky, that since Billy didn't_ _technically_ _own Spring, the bunny couldn't ever really be scooped._

 _Besides, Billy would never ruin its suit or endoskeleton because it was the only animatronic that never ever let Billy down._

 _SpringBonnie was a good, well-behaved little bunny._

 _He hoped Goldie would be proud of him, but deep down, SpringBonnie knew that he wouldn't be. Not really. Not with the way Billy made SpringBonnie act._

 _SpringBonnie was a good, well-behaved little tool._

 _The specially designed animatronic watched the proceedings before him with abject dread and silence; the sound of a little girl's weak crying rang in the back of his skull._

 _SpringBonnie was a good…well-behaved…large…weapon…_

 _Billy turned, adjusted his purple shirt, his tie and relaxed his scowling face. But SpringBonnie had seen it. It knew the truth._

 _SpringBonnie was a…good…disobedient…monster…_

 _Now the human was walking over, and a smile was spreading over his face._

 _SpringBonnie was a…bad…_

" _Get up. I need you."_

 _SpringBonnie was a…k…a kill..er…of…chil…d…ren…_

 _SpringBonnie terminated his fail-safe programming. The springlocks sliced outward, and his endoskeleton decompressed and filled his suit with a great crunch. As soon as his limbs were online, SpringBonnie began moving to stand up._

 _Billy smiled up at him, a wide, crocodile-toothed one._

 _SpringBonnie was…not…SpringBonnie anymore._

" _What a good bunny._ _ **My**_ _good bunny. You and I, we make a great team, don't we?"_

 _SpringBonnie didn't think so. But he didn't argue._

 _It never made much difference anyway, after all._

Springtrap lifted its optic plates, letting them stop at half-mast. His left optic still couldn't quite manage to illuminate, so he only had one to light up the little hotel room. The fans in his body, now down to only two out of the four, chugged gently. A street light was also putting some light in the room, and the slip of blue tinted light laid crossways over the thin carpeting and the single bed to his left.

Springtrap watched the day guard sleep, then looked at the clock, because his internal one had long since ran dry. The world outside was orange and crimson, and it took Spring's tired cameras a second to adjust properly. Sunset was very soon. And although Springtrap used to like watching the sunset outside his and Goldie's diner, the action didn't much thrill him anymore.

Still, he kept his optics trained on the setting sun dutifully. It was one of the few forms of self punishment he had left, because night time never meant anything good was going to happen.

The dead don't dream.

The dead remember.

* * *

Danny woke up to his alarm from his phone going off. His hand found it on the third try, and as he shut it off he sat up. Springtrap was staring out the window, and didn't so much as acknowledge the now awake human.

"Spring? Springtrap," Danny called a second time, finally getting a head turn. "You okay? Something exciting out there?"

"No." Well, he was honest. Or a terrific liar, Danny couldn't decide on which. "I was watching the sunset."

"It's pretty isn't it?" Asked the young man as he pushed himself out of bed. "Sure, we got a great view of the parking lot but that has its merits."

"Because it means privacy. Less curious humans. Less questions." Springtrap droned, still not moving his rotted head from the sight. It was 'pretty' in an emotional sense, the robot supposed. Still, sunsets were always a bit of a catch-22. Yes they were lovely to look at, yes they meant an end to a long day, but that didn't matter much if the sun never rose again, did it?

There went the sun. The sky was still purple and crimson, but would soon melt into inky black and blue within a few minutes or so. Danny started to clamber out of bed.

"Right, exactly that." Danny agreed with a bob of his head. He yawned, and mentioned something about going to get a bite to eat from the vending machine down the hall. Springtrap turned away as the door closed, and with a creaky noise, blinked tiredly.

* * *

Danny returned to the old warehouse with Springtrap in tow. The night was chilly and dark, and though the city was making plenty of ambient noises far off to the north, the air around the two was silent and still. Buildings loomed like tombstones, forgotten hollow corpses waiting to be bulldozed. The city slept, but Danny did not.

When they reached the elevator, Springtrap spotted something new. Something out of place.

"Whadjya' find, Spring?" Danny bent down before Spring had to force his rusted body to. His fingers snagged the paper lying beside the keypad and he quickly unfolded it.

 _To Out Dance the Dancer: FLFFRLFRLFF –M_

"Do you think Mike left this?" The human asked the expressionless bunnybot eagerly. "Do you think he's okay somewhere? Maybe—down here? Just hiding?"

"Why is he hiding then?" Springtrap countered calmly, sounding like a patient tutor teaching a slow student on arithmetic. "What is so terrible that Operator—the _Suit of Golden Freddy_ —has to hide?"

Fitzgerald deflated and winced, "Forget I asked." He moaned, as the elevator lurched to a stop. "Still…this is a good sign, he left this here for us."

"Someone did, anyway." Spring's voice was light but held a razor sharp edge to it.

Danny pocketed the strange string of letters, deciding to worry about it later.

"Right. Could be that, too….but I wonder who the dancer is? Does it mean…" The night guard wracked his brain for the animatronics he had been told about. "Ballora, I guess?"

"It could be." Springtrap agreed in that easy going way of his. It was taking some getting used to, but Springtrap's sense of self-preservation and logical trains of thought were kind of nice and reliable. Familiar, even, like that old steady-as-she-goes PC your folks had that was only good for playing solitaire and checking mail. Springtrap wasn't sleek and shiny, nothing at all like the Funtime models Danny had already seen. And yet somehow, Danny liked Springtrap better.

It wasn't long before HandyUnit piped up his programmed dialogue, chipper and over-confident as ever.

'Speaking of sleek and shiny…' Danny thought with a growing frown at the ceiling. He still blamed HandyUnit for last night, for making him essentially torture those three animatronics. If Mike WAS hiding, it was probably from this creepy shit of an AI!

" _Welcome back to another night of intellectual stimulation, pivotal career choices, and self-reflection on past mistakes. We're committed to creating a unique and fulfilling work experience. One part of that commitment is ensuring that you don't get tired of the voice that you're hearing right now."_

"…you're shitting me." Danny deadpanned, to the amused snort from his rotted rabbit companion. As usual, HandyUnit did not understand the outside speech or, as was getting more and more likely, was choosing to ignore Danny.

" _Using the keypad below, please select a new companion voice. For male, press 1. For female, press 2. For text only, press 3. For other options, press 4."_

Springtrap watched dubiously as Danny's fingers tried finding a 1, 2, 3 or 4 in the mess that was the keypad.

"Maaan…this interface is soo glitchy!" Danny moaned, finally just jabbing at the screen where he thought he saw a 3.

" _It seems that you had some trouble with the keypad. I see what you were trying to type, and I will autocorrect it for you. Thank you for choosing… Angsty Teen._ "

Silence reigned in the little circular room, which was finally touching the basement's ground floor.

"So, wait—what?" Danny asked, eyebrows raised. "It's going to sound like a—"

" _The elevator's stopped. You know the routine. Get out now, or whatever. Stay here if you want._ "

Danny fell silent, but beside him Springtrap said, his tone heavily amused, "It sounds rather like yourself, day guard."

Danny shot Spring a look, but didn't say anything as the doors flung themselves open.

"Well…" The human hesitated before the dark, empty space of the vents he had to travel through. "You'll be here?" He tried to make it sound light-hearted, teasing even. It almost worked.

"I'll be here." Springtrap's response was downright firm and promising. That tone did more for Danny's nerves than his own meager attempts at jokes.

"Okay…see you in a bit."

At first, Danny was pleasantly surprised that HandyUnit's AngstyTeen voice was staying relatively silent. It was silent as he bent down and clambered into the vent, it was silent as Springtrap lowered himself to illuminate Danny's path from behind, and it was silent as Danny crawled deeper into the darkness.

Until all of a sudden it wasn't.

" _So, funny story, a dead body was found in this vent once. M'kay, so, not that funny, but, it's a story._ "

"God…" Danny moaned, just deciding to ignore the new voice of HandyUnit. He made his way out of the vent and into the control room, getting up so fast he felt a little light headed. Danny barely had time to recover before once more, HandyUnit's Angsty Teen voice mumbled from the speakers, sounding dull and bored.

" _Alright, so, let's start with your nightly chores. You should check on Ballora, and make sure she's on her stage, but, whatever._ "

Danny checked, frowning when he noticed Ballora was in fact gone. Because he couldn't see her, he couldn't see if she fit what he thought a dancing animatronic looked like—and he certainly didn't remember from last night after all the excitement. Still, he was willing to be money she was the dancer he would have to 'out dance' as Mike (hopefully) had put it. Ballora sounded a little to close to 'Ballerina' to be anything but.

Ballora wasn't on her stage. But her silhouette was covering up most of the window, making Danny jump and clutch at his chest. HandyUnit, as usual, ignored it.

" _Huh. I guess Ballora has better things to do."_

"Wouldn't you too instead of being stuck on that dumb stage all night?" Danny muttered, feeling sour towards the AI in the speakers around him. "I know Foxy sure hated it…"

" _Let's zap her! That should be fun._ "

The sound of hundreds of volts slamming through the air and into some poor unsuspecting animatronic still made Danny feel awful. Before he could check on the animatronic, HandyUnit's response distracted him.

The garbled, sickening sounding mumble of noises reminded him a lot of the weird groaning Bonnie used to do to freak him out. But unlike Bonnie's friendly teasing this was just…spooky. And while Danny assumed Bonnie could control and make the noise at whim, this did not seem to be the Angsty Teen's attempt to liven things up.

"Uh…you okay up there?"

" _Let's check on Funtime Foxy…"_ Angsty Teen spoke up as if nothing had happened. _"Make sure he's ready for show time tomorrow._

" _Great.. Great... Great..._ " The voice chimed though, distorted and mechanically low.

"Uh…" Danny waited, shoulders tense and heart nearly forgetting to beat. "HandyUnit? Is your motherboard melting or something?"

Yeah. These things definitely hadn't had the Mike treatment. He could keep anything going, with minor accidents happening. This wasn't so much an accident as a huge melt down.

" _There seems to have been a problem with the voice synthesizer."_ The usual voice suddenly spoke, nonplused as ever. _"Default settings have been restored. Please proceed through the vent ahead of you to Circus Baby's Auditorium._

"Right…we're just going to ignore that, I guess." Danny muttered, turning toward the front vent and crouching down. He clambered in; inwardly thankful HandyUnit didn't expect him to fix that weird little feature.

This place seemed wrong. And the feeling was getting worse by the minute.

* * *

Springtrap had very little to do.

The elevator had fallen silent and refused to go back up, which Springtrap supposed was for the best. If the young day guard needed to leave in a hurry like he wanted to last night, then the best course of action would be for the elevator to stay on this level just in case.

As a general rule, computers generally are unable to get bored. But the animatronics created by FazCorp were rarely the sort of computers that followed normal rules.

There was also, of course, the addition in Springtrap's body. Unlike the rest of the animatronics he had known, he was the only one to carry with him a corpse for so long. Sometimes Springtrap wondered if this were his own form of punishment, for allowing Afton to go on with his horrific ways until the murder count got as high as it did.

There was only one person who ever tried removing Afton's rickety, petrified corpse.

But then Michael Schmidt, his new Operator, had shut him down one day. And that was the last Springtrap had seen of the Night Guard until young Danny activated him.

The silence was a scary sound.

Springtrap didn't feel bored persay, but he certainly felt _restless_. Maybe it came from having long dead nerves within his frame, maybe he had picked up more human ticks from Afton than he'd like to admit, he didn't know. What Spring _did_ know was that the night was still long, even though his internal clock had bit the dust years ago.

There was a far off noise, a dull clank of muted metal. Thankfully, Operator had removed the pre-programmed urge to head for any little bit of noise. It was an old command, when he was still SpringBonnie and meant to keep the Toy Animatronics from wandering to empty rooms. Now whenever Springtrap heard a child's voice, he only felt dread and fear. Better that then Afton's endless little comments within him, pushing him to find the source, to _silence_ it.

It was nice to have the choice now—follow or ignore? Freedom tasted bitter sweet, but Springtrap reminded himself robots do not taste.

The rotted bunny wandered the small stretch of room, keeping his good ear trained behind him just in case.

Everything in here was so…reflective. In truth, Springtrap had forgotten most of his memories here on purpose. Digging them up, even knowing he had to help the day guard and Operator, were still hard for him. And since Mike wouldn't blame him for it, Springtrap blamed himself. Springtrap became distinctly and suddenly aware of himself, staring back from the shiny metal plating that made up the wall to his left.

Springtrap turned slowly, looking at his terrible and true form in the reflection.

Overcome with a sudden, terrible wave of irritation and anger at himself, the animatronic swung and buried his fist into the wall, denting it. After the rage began to subside, Springtrap's optics blinked from purple back to their normal calm silver.

Being bored was perhaps just a bit better than being angry.

* * *

" _Circus Baby had a busy day today. Let's check the light and make sure she's in proper working order._ "

"I still haven't seen Circus Baby." Danny spoke mockingly to the damn, infuriating AI. "How do I even know I'm doing any of this right, you Knight Rider reject?"

As usual HandyUnit spoke cheerfully on.

" _Oh, Circus Baby! We aren't here to play hide and seek. Let's encourage Baby to come out of hiding with a controlled shock._ "

Danny groaned, but closed his eyes and hit the button. He winced at the sheer sound of a thousand volts slamming into somewhere. The noise was horrible, the way metal echoed. If this ever happened to Bonnie, Danny would probably hurl.

" _Let's try another controlled shock._ "

"Let's not and say we did." Danny grunted, but it could not be avoided.

This time, however, there was strange silence. Only the sound of fans chugging and the display board in front of him. Danny paused, lifting his finger slowly. For a second, he thought HandyUnit hadn't noticed.

He was wrong.

" _There seems to be a power malfunction that is affecting our ability to properly motivate Baby. Please stand by while I reboot the system. I will be offline momentarily during this process. Various other systems may be offline as well, such as security doors, vent locks, and oxygen."_

"Okay." Danny paused. "Oxygen!? Oi! Wait—stop! Desist or something—"

"… _Commencing system restart._ "

"You piece of shit—"

The room went dark. Danny's flight or fight instinct slammed into overdrive and he froze like a spooked mouse. The fans had died, there was no oxygen moving anymore and he dutifully tried to hold his breath for as long as he could. There was still breathable air, but he didn't know how long this little reboot would take. Knowing what he knew already of this backwards joint, Danny fully was prepared to pass out down here from lack of air. He hoped he was wrong, though. The day guard knitted his eyes shut, wishing Springtrap were here, or that he could at least yell for the android.

"I don't…recognize you."

Danny almost fell over into the dashboard, that too dark. He peered anxiously out through the glass, but could make out nothing. That voice—it wasn't HandyUnit. He was pretty sure it wasn't HandyUnit at all, let alone any version of AngstyTeen that was trying to reactivate.

The voice, without waiting for a response, droned on.

"You are new. I remember this... scenario, however."

It sounded female, and young. Mechanically young, a bit like BB's tone without being the pitch. A child animatronic? Danny wondered. He let out a little, unwilling gasp, his body screaming for air. He tried not to pant, becoming ever aware of the lack of fans.

"It's a strange thing to want to do, to come here. I'm curious what events would lead a person to want to spend their nights in a place like this, willingly. Maybe curiosity? Maybe ignorance."

"I mean, stupidity sounds about right—" But once more, Danny was interrupted, and he didn't argue when he was.

"There is a space under the desk; someone before you crafted it into a hiding place, and it worked for him. I recommend that you hurry, though. You will be safe there. Just try not to make eye contact. It will be over soon. They will lose interest."

"Wait—someone before me—was it Mike? Was it Mike Schmidt— _hey_!" Danny called, feeling useless. "Are you there?!"

He was answered, after a second. Not by the voice, but by the soft sounds of scuttling and dull thuds behind him. Fitzgerald spun, remembering the sounds he heard last night when he was crawling back to the elevator.

These were identical.

Danny ducked down, seeing the way the space under the desk went back a bit too far to be normal. He shot right for it, fitting his body into the tight space and twisting to see out from under the desk better. His shoulder hit a smooth, mottled plate of steel that slid when he connected with it, and when his hand found it, Danny realized what it was.

This little patch-job of a hiding hole just _had_ to be Mike's doing! Even now, the guy was looking out for him. Danny wrenched the steel door hard and frantically, tugging until he could no longer move it.

He sat there, feeling exposed and claustrophobic all at once. It was hard to hear around the rushing sound of his heartbeat in his ears, and his palms were slick with sweat as he waited.

" _Where arrrre you?"_

This wasn't the voice of the female giving him the suggestions just a second ago, and he wasn't about to assume it was anyone good either.

" _Someone is inside."_

Danny clapped his hand over his mouth, pressing against it hard until he could feel his teeth.

" _Is it the same person?"_ One asked the other.

" _We always find a way inside~"_ whispered the new voice, and when Danny jerked his head, he could see a single optic. Suddenly, his metal wall started sliding back on the track that someone (most likely Mike) had built. Danny forgot all attempts at silence and grabbed on his end, slamming all his weight into pushing the gap away. His attempts were met with more tugging, getting stronger and stronger. Danny felt it start to slip from his grip, but he dug his heels in and leaned back, teeth gritted. He absolutely refused to go down like this!

" _She's watching us!"_ Another gasped suddenly, and the voice sounded farther away. " _We have to leave now—"_

" _But we'll see you again sooooon,"_ chimed the other voice before the thudding started up and soon ended.

Danny sat there, crammed under the desk with the wall still folded in front of him. He kept his knees drawn up to his chest, which was heaving best it could given his taut, tense position. His adrenaline spike had only just started to drop when the female voice came back, and dizzyingly, Danny wondered if that was Circus Baby's voice.

"When your guide comes back online, he is going to tell you that he was unsuccessful. That you must restart the system manually. He will then tell you to crawl through Ballora Gallery as fast as you can to reach the breaker room."

"The breaker room…" Danny breathed, trying to commit everything she was saying to memory.

Danny started to pull his shaking body out, fumbling for the flashlight he'd dropped in his haste to hide. It wasn't where he remembered dropping it, which meant something—or _someone_ —had moved it. Unable to find his voice again, he let the stranger keep whispering in that gentle, lilting tone of hers to him.

"If you follow his instructions, you will die. Ballora will not return to her stage anymore. She will catch you. The power will be restored shortly."

"But…" Danny wheezed a bit, "But what will I do about Ballora?" He had already shocked her more than once; there was little reason for him to suspect she'd be as docile and friendly as the animatronics he knew from Freddy's.

"When you crawl through Ballora Gallery, go slowly. She cannot see you, and can only listen for your movement. When you hear her music become louder, she is growing near. Listening for you.

Wait and be still."

"Wait and be—but where am I going? Isn't there anything else you can tell me?" He tried, and as if on cue the fans chugged to life and started spinning at their usual speed. The wave of fresh, slightly cool air was a welcome relief. HandyUnit, however, was not.

" _Thank you for your patience. It seems like the power system cannot be restarted automatically. You will need to restart the power system manually. Please return to the primary control module._ "

Danny paused, considering his options. On the one hand, the stranger had been right. She'd saved him once. Twice if she was telling the truth about Ballora, which he supposed she was.

But then why was HandyUnit lying?

"Maybe it is just a clueless hunk of junk…" Instantly, Danny felt this was wrong. Mike had always told him to never underestimate an AI, even less complex ones. That had certainly been true so far…

The day guard bent down and slipped back the way he'd come. His sneakers were barely on the cheap tile before HandyUnit started yammering at him again.

" _You will now be required to crawl through the Ballora gallery using the vent to your left to reach the breaker room."_

He spied the open door down to his left and tried to ignore the way those weird eyes on the mannequin heads followed him.

" _It is recommended that you stay low to the ground, and reach the other side as fast as possible, as to not disturb Ballora."_

"As fast as possible, huh?" Danny muttered, recalling the stranger's words. He decided to go with her advice, and if for some reason he felt Ballora was going to get him too easy, he supposed he could just sprint back here and call for Springtrap, maybe. At the very least, he knew the animatronic he had seen dancing on stage would not fit through the small space down by his sneakers.

He wondered if that was by design.

" _I will deactivate myself momentarily, as to not create an auditory disturbance. Deactivating..._ "

"Good riddance."

Before he crawled through, Danny noticed a folded slip of paper sitting where the door had been. It would have been invisible until the panel was lifted. He grabbed it eagerly, and smoothed it open to read it.

 _The merry go round will break down, but some things must break before they can be fixed. Be ready for Freddy. -M_

* * *

 **The release of FNAF6 has certainly kindled a lot of my love for the story! I admit that for a bit I didn't really enjoy working on the knight guard universe. Due to personal feelings and stress, not because I don't love the FNAF world any less. Welp, regardless I pushed to get this chapter up, and plan to continue working on Finding Freddy until it's done.**


	7. Bunny Ears and Turning Gears

**See the end for author's note.**

" _Maybe you're right…"  
(It's just another night)  
"But I heard a creak!"  
(Just go back to sleep)  
"I'm always quick to rage,"  
(So go back to your stage...Wait… Now I hear it…)_

* * *

 **Chapter 6. Bunny Ears and Turning Gears**

" _If you follow his instructions, you will die."_

The girl's soft, lilting words rang between Fitzgerald's ears as he crawled along the shiny tile. At first, Danny hadn't heard anything when he crawled into Ballora Gallery. Not even HandyUnit, who seemed to have taken his vow of silence seriously. That was…good, right? Danny hesitated in the gloom of the wide, square room, letting his eyes adjust.

What he wouldn't give for Bonnie's radar-like ears right about now.

Then he heard it, soft and far off. A music box.

And for a moment, Danny's heart crawled to his throat and pounded hopefully. The Puppet sometimes made that—oh, wait no. It was a completely different tune. Nowhere close to _My Grandfather's Clock_ , which he could still hear Mike whistling if he thought back hard enough.

This was some…random song. Likely one made for Ballora specifically. Trying to track the sound, he realized with mute horror that the sound was moving about the room. Danny eyed the empty stage.

A silhouetted figure twirled in front of it, lazy and languid.

' _Ballora will not return to her stage.'_ The girl had warned him of that, too. So far, she hadn't lied to him. Unlike HandyUnit.

And what about the slip of paper he had just found? Be ready for Freddy, it had warned. And the other one Springtrap had found, 'Out Dance the Dancer.' Those _had_ to be instructions for making it past Ballora.

'I know Mike wrote those.' Danny thought as he crawled forward slowly. 'Ballora's puzzle I figured out. But the Freddy one…? Either he's telling me our Freddy is on the other side of this room, or there's _…another_ Freddy.'

Which Danny wasn't sure he believed. Ballora didn't remind him of the Fazgang he knew at all. Not even the Toys, which, admittedly, Danny barely recalled since he had only been a toddler when he visited the restaurant that the Toys were part of. And even then, he knew he had hated them. Circus Baby's shadow didn't look like an animal _either_. Only Funtime Foxy, and he—or was it she?—was far too chrome and pink and new to resemble the scruffy, almost humanlike Foxy that Danny knew.

He was so deep in thought he didn't notice the music box was getting louder and louder. It was behind him, and that he did notice. The day guard froze in place, holding his breathing until his chest hurt and his vision swam.

But he still saw her in his left peripheral, spinning like a slow top. She was moving thoughtfully, carefully.

'She's looking for me. She knows I'm here.'

Which, of course, seemed ridiculous even as Danny thought it.

She was spinning a circle around, a slow arc from left to right that soon had her and her music dwindling away. Far enough away he could move now.

Danny exhaled as softly as he could, starting to relax.

" _It seems you are taking a long time. Please proceed as quickly and as quietly as possible._ "

Danny almost yelled, HandyUnit's voice was so loud and jarring. Whatever magic spell Ballora's music cast in this dark room was obliterated when HandyUnit jabbered on. Though Danny swayed, he didn't trip. He slunk along the floor, watching Ballora's elegant silhouette across the room where she danced and searched, endless. Patient.

'She's listening for me. Like Bonnie would.' This thought was worse than the last, to be honest.

Danny saw the door in his sights at last—just how long was Ballora's room? And he picked up his crawling by just a hair. The music was farther away than before, making Danny assume she was completing her rotation by the vent door he had entered from.

His hands clawed, closed round the latch, and he shoved, using his shoulder so hard it throbbed in protest. But the door gave way, miraculously, wondrously. He had made it!

Danny had only sort of noticed the poster on the front door a little too late, but he was already in the Breaker Room by the time it occurred to him.

It too, had said 'Be Ready.'

* * *

" _Why did you let me go, Spring?"_

His chipped and stained teeth felt like they were wired or stuck shut. Afton's corpse was long gone, but he still found it hard some days to work and to move correctly. But this moment had nothing to do with faulty wiring or cracked, metal jaws. This was terror, clutching Springtrap until he felt strangely cold and empty.

" _Why…? You let me go by myself."_ Said the voice again. Springtrap had held out for as long as he could. He worked his jaw open, and spoke with careful, detached interest.

"I didn't. You went on your own, Operator. I tried stopping you."

The shadowy figure crossed its lanky arms.

" _Well, you didn't try heard enough. But that's not new, is it Springysprung? You_ _ **never**_ _tried stopping_ _ **any**_ _thing."_

Springtrap forced himself not to look at the Phantom-Mike that had appeared. He didn't need to look at it to know what hell he would be have to endure by doing so.

It would look like all the others did that hung around him. Blackened, ashy, lines down his hollow cheeks and rotted lips grinning humorlessly at him. Even Mike's eyes, normally sky blue and friendly, would be obsidian black with white pinpricks. His clothes looked like he had been in a fire. One he hadn't survived.

"Please, stop." Spring tried now, he really did. It was all he could do to keep his sanity from slipping out of his rusty fingers.

" _Please stop' huh?"_ Phantom Mike asked, sounding amused. Playful. Wicked. _"Do you think that's what I asked the Funtimes when they captured me? Let's see…they're kidnappers, aren't they, SpringBonnie? Yeah…so, they probably…chased me. Hunted me like a_ _ **goddamn animal**_ _. The deadliest game—that's man, isn't it? That's what Afton taught you. Dear old daddy taught you that, Springbonnie._

"Please—you're not real—" The rotted rabbit begged softly, trying to close his creaky optics. Though the elevator vanished, Phantom-Mike did not. His image burned through, making Springtrap stumble back.

" _Held me down. Gassed me, maybe, Funbear can do that, so can Funtime Foxy. But only Funbear can hold bodies, can't he? They knock me out, hide my body. Take me off to kill me in so many gruesome ways. And that's it, that's my story, Springbonnie. That's how the night guard goes out. Nothing heroic, nothing awe-inspiring."_ Phantom-Mike appeared to be inspecting his fingernails.

" _Puppet's fucken dead so, he can't bring me or Goldy back, so I guess…that's it, isn't it?"_

Springtrap decides that if he ignores the hallucination…maybe it will go away. The others usually obeyed that rule. Usually.

" _Let's go over it again, Spring. So, there's me, alone down here. Defenseless. Scared."_

"You have Golden Freddy, you were n-not—" But Springtrap is interrupted by his own hallucination, and there is something terrifying in that.

" _Alone. Scared."_ Phantom-Mike moves mechanically, then fluidly. He glides in front of Springtrap, and smiles white, unmarred teeth. Against his black, soot covered corpse face, they are almost pretty. His eyes are not, though.

" _You let it happen, Springtrap. Again and again. Not just me. I was just the finale."_ Phantom-Mike whispered in his good ear.

" _There was a whooole set of Acts to come before the night guard. I survived all five nights, I survived the Nightmares, even meeting Afton himself…only to die down here like a worthless rat in a sewer. By robots_ _ **you**_ _let live. Afton might as well have killed me, for all the good you've done in protecting me."_

"I did not—"

" _You did."_

"I tried to stop—"

" _You did not."_

Another thought comes, sudden, overwhelming. The real Mike, something he said long ago. His voice not ghostly, not malicious. But warm and alive and _gentle_.

" _Spring, you keep seeing those Phantom versions a lot? That's…worrying. Almost like you're….a human with PTSD. Maybe we can learn some techniques to ground you when they happen. Maybe we can out think your cpu. Worth a try, right?"_

"It is." Springtrap answers himself out loud, then turns to Phantom-Mike, his arms still crossed. His smile still horribly gaunt and stretched over his many, many teeth.

"You are **not** real." Springtrap starts talking again, not letting the horrible image interrupt his processing. "You are **not**. You are _impossible_. Unrealistic. You're Afton's brain in me—playing tricks. You are not—" Springtrap stops at the word 'dead.'

He…didn't know that for sure. He thinks quickly, going to try for another angle.

"You are **not** the real Michael Schmidt. You are not my Operator. He would never…accuse me."

Phantom-Mike has gone stilled, his edges thin and fluttery like a bad radio signal going in and out.

"You're a Phantom. Nothing more. Useless like all the rest."

It was working.

Springtrap repeated the words over and over, each time sounding more threatening and angry than the last. He could only bottle his rage for so long before it tried leaking out again.

Before the Bad came back. It always did, after all.

Phantom-Mike was gone by the time Springtrap reached his fifth rant. He trailed off, waiting in the silent, still elevator shaft.

"Gone. But for how long?" That was what still worried Springtrap. He couldn't shut down either, and hide from the Phantoms that haunted him like rabid dogs. Danny needed him, and so did Mike, whether Springtrap wanted to admit it or not.

"I need…to distract myself." Springtrap settled on, voice tired once more.

So Springtrap explored. It was how he found the small, hidden panel of steel in the corner. He fiddled with it for a while, until it suddenly gave way and opened. The opening was half the height of a normal door, much bigger than the vents Danny had disappeared down only an hour ago. Had it really only been an hour?

Springtrap weighed the options before him, but one recall of Phantom-Mike and his mind was made up. Stooped over and walking cautiously, Springtrap edged under the lip of the secret door. He stood upright when the space allowed him, and he eyed the long hallway that opened on either side of him. To his right was just more hallway, then it turned. To his left, though…

Another door. This one had a sign, 'Parts and Services 2.'

"Why two?" Spring mulled to himself as he wandered over to it.

As he entered the room, the first thing he noticed was how dark it was. The second thing he noticed made him pause, and a sinking feeling overcame the bunnybot. He stood in the stillness, and simply gazed into the small work room.

The worst part, Springtrap realized, was that Phantom-Mike _had_ spoken some truth.

Mike Schmidt _had_ been alone down here.

* * *

The Breaker Room was exceptionally smaller than the other rooms Danny had explored already. The ceiling wasn't very high, and the walls were covered in thick, corded pipes that dangled from above like so many dead snakes. They helped with the whole 'suffocating atmosphere' of the room, but after being crammed under the desk in Baby's section, he supposed this might as well be the old Dining Hall. The nests of pipes and cords didn't move very well when Danny tentatively reached out and pushed a few. And the room was, just as Ballora's Gallery, only vaguely lit. More shadows than light, more shapes than distinct things. He glanced over to his right, pausing for a moment. Was...was someone standing over there?

HandyUnit didn't give him time to find out, because soon it was yammering on again.

" _You may now interface with the breaker control box."_ Just in front of him, a light illuminated a small box.

" _Using the interface may disrupt nearby electronics."_

"Nearby electronics?" Fitzgerald turned to glance into the blackened corner.

" _If you feel that you are in danger, feel free to disconnect the interface temporarily, until it is safe to reconnect._ "

"Yeah. I'll be sure to jump right on that." The day guard muttered, crouching before the breaker box and opening the door with a soft creak.

"Mascot...response audio." Danny muttered. "What does…?" He couldn't help it, he pressed the button before he could stop himself. A soft, feminine and tinny voice sounded somewhere off to the far right of him.

 _("Caalmm down and go back to sleep! No one is here.")_

"I gotta stop answering my own questions." He turned his attention to the control panel, small and dingy though it seemed. It flickered horribly, but the good thing was that it was nothing compared the control panel back in the elevator, the one that had named him Eggs Benedict.

"Funtime A...Ballora G...oh, auditorium. Gallery. Parts and S-theres a Parts and Services here too?" Maybe Mike was hiding in there?

"Obsv. one and two…" None of this was making sense. No one had mentioned an observation room. And he knew asking HandyUnit would get him nowhere, so that left Springtrap or the voice from earlier. Circus Baby.

Danny had just resetting the breaker box when he noticed the Danger level. And then he noticed the figure looming over him, smile wide as it fluttered in and out from the flashes of lights and sparks. It was a Freddy model alright, but it was...a Funtime version. His microphone was in his other hand, but that could have been because he had a small, rather cute looking, Bonnie model for a right paw. It was a hand puppet? That was...new. Danny recalled what Freddy had often told him, that Bonnie was his right-pawed rabbit.

Who had taken that so literally when they had built Funbear and his friend?

"WELL HELLOOO AGAIN!" Funbear half-yelled, sounding far to eager and a little bit like he'd been inhaling helium.

"Holy-" He slammed the mascot response, hissing in relief as the gentle voice sounded on cue.

 _("Everything is oookay.")_

Funbear was back on his stage in the time it took for Danny to blink, and he felt sick to his stomach. Was that….was that the _Bonnie's_ voice saying that?

He forced himself to focus back on the breaker system, holding the recharge system desperately. All too soon the day guard could feel Funbear getting more and more agitated, getting closer in the dark.

"BAWN-BAWN, SAY HI TO OUR-!"

Danny hit the mascot button.

 _("Shh! Go back to your stage. Everything is okay.")_

"Almost half left still." Danny said.

But he kept up his game, careful of Funtime Freddy's constant, threatening presence and relying on BawnBawn to keep the Funbear quiet and on his elevated stage across the room. He had only just finished the last Observation room when it happened. Funbear had gotten close, was nearly breathing down his neck, when Danny hit the mascot button. Nothing happened. He hit it again. Zilch. So Danny looked up, and up and up, only to notice that Funbear wasn't the only one staring at him.

BawnBawn was gazing down at him, too.

"OH well HELLO again!" Funbear seemed to mock, taking a step closer.

"Fucking hell-" Everything was reset in the breaker room, but he had the feeling that if he didn't want to reset a broken leg, he needed to get out of here and fast. Except Funbear seemed to figure out his next move before he did, and he blocked off the door to Ballora's Gallery. With no where else left to go, Danny moved back into the room, leaning into the tangle of cords and pipe working until he felt something dig into his back. That felt like a door handle, not a pipe-it was!

He turned it, pushed, and fell through into a new, thin hallway.

"WHERE YA GOING, LIL GUY?"

Desperately, Danny dug out Mike's journal, opening it to the list of rules, begging for anything that could help him. Behind him, Funbear bullied his girth through the door, chuckling to himself as he and BawnBawn looked around.

 _3\. Play Dead_

"I don't think this is the time for that one," He snapped the journal shut and stowed it away as he ran. He had only just turned a corner when he saw the writing on the wall, beside a big red button.

 _To escape harm  
sound the alarm –M_

Danny moaned, debating it all back and forth in his head. Worrying, wondering, what good would it all do if he were dead? His hand moved like it was on a string, and he slammed his palm into the big, shiny red button.

Nothing.

"Of fucking co—" it was then the most ear splitting sound erupted from everywhere and nowhere and once. Danny jumped, clapping his hands over his ears as he turned to see Funbear and BawnBawn had halted. BawnBawn looked distraught, his tiny blue paws tugging down his ears as he trashed, swinging Funbear's arm around. Funbear took his attention off the day guard, trying to tend to his audio sensitive puppet-partner.

"Of _course_ ," Danny finished, realizing what the tip alluded to. Bonnie models had super delicate hearing—massive speakers and receptors that allowed them to see without their optics.

Even smaller models like Bawnbawn hadn't escaped that feature. And it certainly came with a big drawback, because loud, shrill sounds threw the entire model out of whack.

A deaf Bonnie was a useless one.

Danny eyed the connection between Funbear and BawnBawn. With their close proximity, it was no wonder Funbear was focused on BawnBawn instead of him, now. Danny slipped away, then broke out into a sprint through the new, long hall. This…wasn't what he was used to.

He ran blind, slowing when he didn't hear the sound of metal feet thudding after him. He was alone—well, alone as he could be with HandyUnit down here with him.

" _You are entering an unauthorized section of—"_

"Shut the fuck up!" Danny shouted over his shoulder at the ceiling, and was a little surprised when HandyUnit did shut the fuck up. Huh.

The freaky AI was right though, he was in a section he didn't remember seeing on the map he had just been fixing. Or ever. The long, steel hallway stretched before him like one thin snake, and at the end of the hall was a door.

A door that was opening. A door that was—

" _Springtrap_!?" Danny called, half in relief, half in disbelief. Yet there was no mistaking the green-yellow torn up Bonnie model, not even at this distance. After seeing only shiny, chrome-plated animatronics, seeing Springtrap was like seeing God himself appear before Danny.

"Day guard?" Spring called back, a touch of surprise in the inflection of his tone. Clearly, he didn't know Danny would be here either! Nor that he would be followed by Funbear, who made it round the corner. His optics settled on Danny's back, and the pupils shrank to red, tiny dots lighting up the dim hallway.

"Ohhh BIRTHDAY BOOY!" Funbear crowed in his booming, comically high pitched voice.

"I'm coming! I'm coming just—just be ready!" Danny called back, afraid to look over his shoulder. The banging that rattled and thudded behind him was exactly like last night's.

'BawnBawn was in the vents with me.' Danny's panicked mind filed the information away for later.

Springtrap was ready, and he held the door firmly in his rotted mitts as Danny ran full tilt toward him. Behind him, Funbear lumbered. BawnBawn seemed to be still acting glitchy, but instead of slowing Funbear down it only seemed to make him that much more intent on reaching the scrambling day guard.

"Close it!" Danny choked out as he flew by Springtrap. "Close it—closeitcloseit—"

Springtrap obeyed, slamming the thick door into its opening and turning the locks. The door buckled when something, presumably Funbear, collided with it. It wobbled, it creaked and it protested, but the metal did not give.

Springtrap waited, lidded eyes and working ear trained on the industrial door. Behind him, leaning heavily on his knees, Danny tried to catch his breath. He leaned, narrowly avoiding toppling over and instead grabbed onto the metal bench that sat halfway up the wall.

"Where-? Where is…?"

"I'm not sure. It said Parts and Services 2. I haven't found room one yet." Springtrap was still watching the door. Funbear had quieted down, but that didn't mean the chromatic bear and his partner in crime had left. Especially since BawnBawn likely had the same hearing capabilities the other Bonnie models came with.

The kind Spring _used_ to have, anyway. But he wasn't bitter.

Danny tried the flashlight, the little plastic one with the deep crack in it. Still, it did not work.

So Danny let his eyes adjust, trying to make out the tiny, dimly lit room Springtrap had found. He noticed a pair of familiar ears, but passed them over at first. Then he remembered Springtrap had one full ear, not two.

Only one other had two that size-

"Oh, god, oh, fuck." Danny gasped, but it trailed into a shaky sob. "Spring, look, it's—it's them."

Springtrap turned, activating his floodlight eyes for the day guard. He had found them already, but he had hoped to not let Danny see them. Somehow, that made it worse.

Sitting slumped and silent on a thick sheet of metal work bench was the Fazgang.

Freddy was in the middle—like always—but he was settled back against the wall. His mascot head had its jaw thrown wide open in a silent, soundless roar that Danny's brain filled in. He shuddered, taking a step closer to the only lively bot in the room. Springtrap, thankfully, said nothing. He swiveled his head slowly, eyeing the others. His eye sockets empty.

Chica was leaning on Fazbear's shoulder, but instead of four lines of metal teeth she had just her beak. She too, was still and silent. And…hollow. Even Cakey was gone, her hands empty like Fazbear's.

Foxy was flanking her left, but he was leaning the other way. Foxy's suit was torn and matted even worse than Danny remembered. Because it was already ripped and gouged, it was that much easier to notice what was missing in the old pirate captain. Besides his loud, boisterous personality.

And that left…

Springtrap's younger model. His…little brother, for lack of a better term. Bonnie the bunny. Noisy, cheerful, lively Bonnie, who had given Danny back something of his father to remember him by. Who had told him he wouldn't forget Danny again, who Danny had then basically forgotten by leaving for so long. The bunny was sitting forward on Freddy's right, his guitar long gone. His big paws hanging between his legs, his head down and ears slack and dangling sideways. Bonnie's ears were like living things, they moved so much that for Danny to see them lifeless was…too much.

"Jesus Christ…. _Bonnie_." Danny let the name slip out, feeling his eyes sting tiredly.

No one should have to see their best friend like that.

"We were too late." Danny moaned, taking a step back and near the door, as if he was going to let Funbear in to kill him.

"Day guard—"

"No! _No_ we were, look at them, Spring. Look at them, Mike would never let this happen! If they're like this then what about him, h-huh? Because, I-I sure as hell know that my boss would have—would have _died_ before letting…them get….gutted."

Because they were, Danny could see it now. They were empty fursuits. Their endoskeletons were gone. Freddy and Foxy were easy to see, Chica's teeth were her giveaway, but Danny couldn't bear to check Bonnie. Seeing his best friend looking worn and still had already been enough to push him over an edge he didn't think he could come back from.

"I'm done, Springtrap! I can't do this anymore—"

"The night guard choose you—"

"Well he choose _wrong_. What? Mike can't make mistakes? Please! He did it all the time, he used to say so himself!" Danny turned away at Springtrap's disappointed expression, throwing his arms up carelessly.

"And, and anyway who is _he_ to ask me to do this? To endanger myself? Mike's a nice guy, and I know he loves the restaurant but this—this isn't the restaurant I worked at. I shouldn't have come here at all."

"Operator clearly thought you could handle it." Springtrap said icily.

"Mike always thinks the best of everybody, that's not my fault!" Danny snapped back, defensiveness rising steadily. Springtrap shot him a look, but a cork had been popped off and all the nights he had spent in silent, stricken fear were coming back to him. Danny was mad, and he wanted to make some noise about it. He wanted to be _heard_.

"I—yeah, I owe him one, okay, and—and I owe _Bonnie_ , because Bonnie gave me back my dad, and Freddy's really stern but he was always nice to me. And Chica…Chica gave me hot chocolate whenever I asked, sure…and, and Bon and Foxy are close so I'd have to make sure I got him too, otherwise Bonnie would _never_ let me hear the end of it, and…and…I just…I'm not…"

A moment later, the young man's breath hitched in a wet, exhausted sound. And Danny began to cry.

"I'm not Mike. I can't do this. I'm gunna die down there tonight, aren't I?"

Springtrap moved, lurching with surprising gentleness as he neared the day guard. He hung back only for a moment, but when the sound of Danny's depression turned toward a louder sob, Spring extended his good arm and rested his rotted mitt gently on Danny's shoulder.

The human hesitated, clearly between disgust, or maybe fear, but suddenly the corpse in Springtrap was no longer on Danny's mind. He turned and stepped closer to Springtrap, leaning his head onto the bunny's only intact shoulder. It was grimy, but age had worn the smell of gore away.

"I'm just made of metal, day guard. What are _you_ made of?"

Danny Fitzgerald turned, staring into Springtrap's silver eyes. He was silent, looking heartbroken, lost and lonely. He didn't feel like some big hero, he certainly didn't feel like an adult capable of pulling this all together.

And he definitely didn't feel like someone responsible enough to be a guard at Freddy's.

"Be nice, Spring." A new voice said. The two turned as one, staring at the slumped over, lifeless Bonnie.

Only one thing had changed, Bonnie was staring at them, his optic slid up but his head remained drooped down. One of his ears covered his sight, so that only one pink, glass eyeball was staring at them.

"Voice activation. Pretty cool, right?" Bonnie said to the stunned pair. Bonnie's ears started rising slowly, as did the rest of him.

"Mikey thought so too."

* * *

 **This plot needs to thicken like pea soup, like, last month. Besides, I still got one more story to do! This chapter's song is 'You Can't Hide' by ChaoticCanineculture. The exchange between Funbear and BawnBawn has always been my favorite part of the song, it's done so well.  
**


	8. Time to Get Mean!

**See the end for author's notes.**

" _You'd best stop wasting your time, reading between the scan lines,  
So long as number four,  
Does not build on the lore,  
You'll never know exactly what it is that came before…"_

* * *

 **Chapter 7. Time to Get Mean!**

" _Bonnie_!" Danny was up and hugging the rabbit before Bonnie could fully upright himself. The purple bot grunted, still trying to get his bearings. His ears were twitching and flicking and he himself was making small, necessary adjustments as he rose back to Active.

"Hi, kid." The bunny's young, electronic voice was the same as it ever was. He was certainly a bit more worn on the outside than the last time Danny had seen him, all those years ago. But Bonnie's voice was like that decade hadn't passed at all. Now that Springtrap's optics hit the wall behind the other bunnybot, Danny could see the small piece of paper hanging above Bonnie's once inert form. It was a page torn from Mike's journal.

 _Nowhere to turn?  
Nowhere to hide?  
let the bunny  
be your guide. __–_ _M_

Danny grinned so hard his cheeks hurt. Relief at having his best friend and another sign of Mike's possible survival made him almost lightheaded. He hugged Bonnie again, not caring if he got made fun of for it.

"You're still you! You're okay, I mean, sort of—" pulling himself together and finally letting the bunny out of his clingy little hug, Danny jerked back and tried to look over Bonnie all at once. The bunny didn't sit still, instead jerking up and shoving his frame off the metal bench. It was then Danny remembered how it felt working at Freddy's. Standing near one animatronic was one thing, but Springtrap was always politely (or perhaps because of age) slightly leaning to one side, making him appear shorter and thinner than the robots Danny used to work with. But Bonnie, Bonnie towered. He only bent down for kids.

"I'm still me alright. Limp's gotten worse, but machinery never was supposed to age well." Bonnie said, taking a few careful steps as his ears finished their twitches. Bonnie regarded Springtrap carefully, eyeing him up and down.

Despite the scuffs and worn patches, Bonnie the bunny's ears were still tall as ever, and they were the only thing that made him the tallest of the gang. Well, aside from Mike when he was doing his 'knight guarding.'

The sting of memory about his boss and the once-unstoppable Golden Freddy sobered Fitzgerald right back up. His throat tightened and he gave those scarlet optics his full attention.

"Where's Mr. Schmidt?" Danny hesitated when he saw Bonnie's expression shift down to him. "Where is he, Bonnie? Where's Mike?"

"You've seen those things out there—they're chrome. New. Built really, really well. Maybe… _too well_ , for children's entertainers." Bonnie spoke carefully, slowly. But he went on before Danny could pick apart any hint Bonnie had given him.

"Gold's supposed to protect the pizzeria. He's supposed to protect us, but he's also the oldest of us all. He wasn't _really_ in the best shape to begin with when the Puppet made Mike his Suit. And the more strain on Gold, double the strain on his Suit." Bonnie flicked his crimson optics to Springtrap, his expression strangely unreadable for how emotive the purple bunny usually was.

"You saw Gold back then, kiddo. When Nightmare went after him. Gold was kind of over the hill after that. And once you get over the hill…you begin to pick up speed."

"I don't understand, Bonnie," Danny said, feeling desperate. Maybe he didn't want to, but wisely Bonnie just gave a simple statement in return.

"Machinery." Bonnie reminded. "Doesn't age well."

Bonnie gave Danny a far too sympathetic and kind look. Danny knew that stare, even coming from a cartoon rabbit. It was the same look people had given him when they told him about his father.

"But _Mike_ isn't—" Danny stopped, closed his mouth. Yes, Mike Schmidt was. Because of Gold, Mike was very much so. More than a normal human, more than any human would ever understand. Bonnie had just said as much. Danny certainly didn't understand the full complexity of it, and he had the feeling Bonnie didn't either. But Bonnie knew enough.

"So he's… _gone_?" Danny murmured. Using _gone_ as a synonym for _dead_ made the kid feel sick to his stomach.

"He, he didn't make it?"

Come to think of it, only one animatronic had ever spoken to him with an air of casualness about the mysterious monstrosity that protected the pizzeria. It had been so out of the realm of normal for the bot that Danny had noticed it, but hadn't dwelt on its implications until now.

"You knew all along." The day guard turned slowly on his hells toward the other active animatronic in the cramped, dark room.

Springtrap's silver optics met his, impassive and stoic as ever. Danny took the silence as a yes and swallowed dryly. Somehow, the silence felt downright insulting.

"Those robots—the Funtimes—they beat Gold." Danny amended his statement, wanting Springtrap to hear the real truth of it out loud. "They beat Gold _and_ Mike. You knew, because when you said 'lost' you really meant de—you meant gone! You _knew_ and you still let me keep coming down here?! By myself?"

" _You_ let him come—" Bonnie looked back and forth, catching up in his own fashion. He snarled at Springtrap, looking like he wanted to push Danny aside and go at the rotted rabbit with his own two paws.

"I needed you down here. Operator and I both did." Springtrap said, but it seemed a meager attempt to defend himself. Danny shook his head in denial, which quickly melted to horror.

"You weren't going to protect me, you were just using me as bait!" Danny felt he was seeing his new friend in a new, unsettling light. Mike's animatronics were loyal to him, but Danny had never know one to risk another's life for him. Even worse, Danny was now hoping Mike wasn't doing it either, that he hadn't set Springtrap up to this.

"I never said that." Springtrap murmured though his rotted and acrylic teeth.

"Because you knew I wouldn't come down here if you did!" Danny accused. "Because who wants to die like this!? Mike didn't!"

"Kid, Mike didn't know this was a trap until it was too late. Springtrap shouldn't have let you come down here but I don't think this whole thing was part of Mike's plan. He thought he was helping, we all did. We only let him come down here because he promised to find a way for us to get in, too." Bonnie laid his paw on the guard's shoulder but jerked in surprised when Danny shrugged him off. His mind was racing and drawing long conclusions, hinting at horrible answers. And unfortunately, more questions he wasn't sure he wanted the answers to.

"How do you know Gold, Springtrap?"

"Stuck with that name, didja?" Bonnie muttered behind Fitzgerald, catching the kid's attention.

"It's not his real one?"

"…it's _half_ of it." Bonnie said, sounding like a sibling tattling on another. His arms were now crossed, body language betraying his casual speech. "He's had three names. Used to be a different color, too. Isn't that right, Springy? You wanna tell him what color you used to be? Or should I?"

Danny turned in time to see Spring's jaw working, grinding softly as he inclined his head toward Bonnie. Finally, Danny saw Springtrap glare for the first time. Really, truly, make an effort to push his haggard features into something resembling an emotion. And it wasn't a friendly one.

"Let _my_ secrets lie, Bonnie. I meant no harm, I was only following Operator's orders. The day guard was the one who woke _me_." Springtrap tried.

"Are you telling me to believe Mike's orders said ' _lure our old inexperienced day guard down here into this Horror Lab and hope for the best'_ and that Mike was totally chill with it?"

Springtrap again fell silent, and for an instant Danny thought he saw the bunny look confused, before it was masked over with startlingly quickness. Springtrap's strange face hardened.

"I'm not telling you to do anything, Bonnie." Springtrap snapped back, icy tone making him hiss his words out. "I am only telling you what I know. Now that you and Daniel are reunited, you two can leave, and never look back. I will search for a way to shut these robots down myself.

Do what you want, Bonnie. You always do."

Springtrap turned, opened the door and went through it. He left Parts and Services 2, causing it to slam. Down in the silent underground Pizza World, it rang between the ears before trailing off into silence.

Danny cautiously relaxed when he realized Springtrap had only stormed off, and that he hadn't run into Funtime Freddy or let the crazed bearbot in. That was good, right? Funtime Freddy and BonBon must have gone back to their stage.

"I thought we were here to find Mike? Not shut down the Funtimes." Danny shook his head. "Why, though? I mean—Funtime Freddy, him I can understand maybe—but the others…"

"They're all a few candles short of a birthday cake, kid. And unsurprisingly, they took major offense to Mike wanting to turn them off. They fought back. Pretty well, since things have gotten this far. This your first night here?"

"Huh? Oh, uhm, no, second. Or third. I can't remember but—but it's awful down here, Bonnie! Did you know about the controlled shock torture thing they do?" Danny turned desperately, gripping the bunny's arm.

"Oh I know, trust me. You think you've seen Mike mad? That was nothing to what we saw when he found out—he just about blew one of Gold's gaskets."

"When _did_ you last see him, Bonnie?" At the bot's look, he shook his head. "I'm…Springtrap was right. Well, I mean, he wasn't right. He lied to me, but. He was right about one thing. He said he was following orders. And I went to Freddy's to look for Mike by my own choice." Danny bit his lip, then reluctantly pulled out the one thing that proved something that would exonerate Springtrap.

Bonnie stared at it. "That's not—it is!? You have the—how'd'ja find the Crying Kid's flashlight!? That thing sticks with Mike—" By his own admission, Bonnie groaned, covering his muzzle. He had just said some pretty nasty things to Springtrap, had arguably been the one to chase him off. And Springtrap was many things, but not even he could have got the flashlight from Mike, and got it to Danny from across the state. That meant the strange, weird flashlight had switched owners by itself. That wasn't the best sign. Freddy was going to kill him.

"Does it work?" Bonnie finally managed. Danny looked down, fumbled with it, clicked its button a few times, even gave it a whack on his palm.

"No. Maybe. I don't know. I can't get it turn on. But it's got batteries."

"That doesn't mean anything. It doesn't need batteries to work. And it also doesn't mean Mike's, yanno. Shuffled off his mortal coil." Bonnie winced, but just like the teenagers he was modeled from, he shrugged.

"The chances aren't great, but…"

"They're possible." Danny finished softly, giving the bunny a knowing look. "And if they are, and if I just leave him down here…with the Funtimes." Danny shook his head.

"I think I should stay down here. I know it's not safe but…" Danny trailed off. "But when I got lost in the Nightmare's world, Mike came and got me. He lost something when he did, too, but he never held it against me. He saved me so…so now it's my turn."

Bonnie heaved an electronic sigh, but finally, slowly nodded.

"You keep that flashlight close, kid. If it's still around—even looking like that— _maybe_ we have a shot at this after all. And I'll stick by you, you little punk, because it looks like Mike left me in my suit for a reason. I'm thinking that reason is you, huh?"

Danny flushed, but nodded shortly.

"C'mon, Bon. We gotta…I gotta shift to finish."

Bonnie walked across the room and opened a panel that Danny hadn't noticed before. Danny stared at the secret entrance before realizing this was how they would avoid the roaming Funtimes.

"Y'know something kid?" Bonnie asked as he held the panel back for Danny to squeeze through.

"What's that, Bon?"

"You sounded a lot like your old man when you said that."

* * *

" _You think I'm dead, Springysprung?"_

Springtrap halted, drew back and then started walking on. Ignore it.

" _C'mon, say it. You knew it all along."_ The voice, so casual and laidback but with something so Off about it, trailed eagerly behind him.

Do not give in to it. It's only your faulty programming.

" _You do think it. Say it, you'll feel better."_ Phantom Mike giggled playfully in his ear as he followed the robot down the hall.

It's only Afton's ghosts haunting you. Trying to lure you in. Parts of him always remain.

" _Sprinnnngtraaap…."_

Don't give in.

" _Or better yet, I'll say it. Will that make you feel better?"_

They always get worse when you acknowledge them. So, simply put, don't do it.

" _Or maybe…my friend here can say it."_

Springtrap froze. Against his screaming fear, he slid his rotted skulls slowly to the side Phantom Mike was lurking.

The empty bear's head stared back.

"No…" Springtrap's fists clenched. He stepped desperately to the right, into the wall of the tight hall.

"Goldie…" Springtrap was reaching for his Fredbear model—at least, something that looked like him—before he could think straight. His best friend, his Fredbear! There was no Bonnie without a Freddy, they always told him. He missed the old animatronic more than his ear, more than a robot should know how to miss something. To see him now, even as a Phantom, it was almost too much.

Phantom Gold faded away almost as abruptly as he had come. Phantom Mike took center, leaning in so close Springtrap could count the freckles under Phantom Mike's soot, rotting face. Flesh dripped off his cheeks, one of his sockets had no eye and so it was black and bottomless.

" _I'm dead. I diiieeed. You killed me. You did it, it wasn't the Funtimes. It was_ _ **you**_ _."_ Phantom Mike hissed.

"It was **not** me—" Springtrap choked out, helplessness blossoming in his chest like a stinking weed.

" _Now you've brought someone new down here to play with. Billy's gunna be super pleased at you, Springy. Y'know? For giving in and letting him take over even from the grave. But night guards like me, they're easy. Too easy. No sport in them, right?"_

"No—you are not….you do not…" Springtrap raised an arm, tendons and muscle from Afton's corpse crick-cracking. But he hesitated, and that was all the Phantom Mike apparently needed.

" _What you needed was a child. Younger. Still naive and full of wonder. The same look in that kid's eyes when he looked at you first powered up. It was almost too easy when he came in, fiddling with levers and the generator. You pretended to lie there. You said your lines perfectly._

"I was not p-pretending," Springtrap jerked, forgetting to step back as Phantom Mike leaned in far too close, his smoky shadow corpse fluttering up to Springtrap's chest cavity.

" _Spoon fed the little guy everything he wanted to hear, never mentioning the odds of me being Alive are, what, zilch? Because once Goldy goes down, I go with him. So he followed you down here. So it will be easier for you when that wonderful moment comes, when you can…reach your hands out….hold him in place…open yourself up…pull inward…_

Phantom Mike's smoky, charred black essence was fading, trickling forward until it was slipping its skeletal fingers into Springtrap's shaking, quivering form.

Springtrap's silver optics were starting to flicker in and out, like a poor reception on an old tv. But instead of darkness or no light at all, the shade that began taking over the silver was something else.

A strange shade to be honest, of violent violet.

* * *

 _A ghost doesn't have to be real to haunt you. -M_

Danny read it out loud, then sighed and crumpled the page up. Suddenly he felt no desire to safe guard the clues he was finding all around this chrome hellhole. He had found this particular one halfway down the hidden passageway, dimly light and only because Bonnie's bright floodlight optics had allowed him to see it's shadow bouncing off the wall.

"I don't even know how old these are." Said the day guard, grouching in frustration.

"You said Mike shut you off weeks ago. And if he was trapped down here, how did he survive without food and water?" Danny asked. He gave Bonnie a pleading look, one that asked for so many answers.

"Especially him. That guy could make a bottomless pit look like a kiddie pool."

Danny snorted, but Bonnie reminded him of something. Springtrap was one thing, but Bonnie had been down here longer. Eyeing those intact bunny ears, Danny perked up.

"Hey, Bonnie. Do you have this whole place mapped out?" He asked eagerly, turning to look at his friend.

"Eh…more or less. I have the secret halls, for the most part. Lot of them, actually. More than you would think down here. But the main rooms, the office Mike once mentioned, nah. I don't even know where the elevator he said there was is." Danny deflated, lips twisting in thought as he considered this information.

"So if we wanted to leave, we couldn't." Danny remarked. "I'm not sure if that's by design or if Mike wanted us to go somewhere here directly after I found you."

"Possibly. He didn't tell me much. But then, that's Schmidt for you. The guy's five steps ahead of everyone else, and three steps ahead of himself. I knew he was removing Fred and the others from their suits, but that was about it."

Danny nodded, sobering up. However, Bonnie had a good point. Mike _was_ clever, IQ over everyone else's sort of clever. But he tended to rely on making things up on the fly, and often he had Freddy cover his back when Plan A's looked like they were going to crumble. It was rare, but it happened. Which meant Mike wouldn't go anywhere without Freddy, which wasn't new to Danny but he had forgotten, in all honesty.

So what did he need Freddy, Chica and Foxy, but _not_ Bonnie for?

Oh, and apparently he needed Springtrap to bring Danny (or whoever the flashlight choose) down here, but Bonnie had effectively—almost eagerly—chased Springtrap off once he was woken up from Shut Off. Had Mike _known_ that was going to happen? Or was it an oversight on his boss' part? The thing was, 'oversights' plus 'Mike' didn't really go together. Only once had Danny seen his boss get the rug pulled out from under him, and that was during the Puppet's death.

He found it hard to believe Mike would let his guard down that poorly again. Not when lives were at stake.

Come to think of it…

Danny mulled it over as he turned a corner. The recording left for him—while it hadn't mentioned him by name— _had_ been sent to Danny's email. Either Mike had taken an almost ludicrously impossible shot in the dark, or Mike had some idea where the flashlight was going to. To accuse Springtrap of orchestrating the whole thing to—what, lure Danny down here?—was kind of absurd. Besides, Danny thought uneasily, Spring had plenty of chances in the last few nights to do something more to him. Either abandon him to go after the Funtimes, or hand him over to the Funtimes, or…worse.

Danny brushed the nagging feeling away almost as quick as it presented itself. That was just paranoia setting in. Springtrap wouldn't have let him get hurt on purpose. He could have simply shut Parts and Services2's door on him in that case, and let Funbear get him. Still, these conclusions lead him to an altogether different, but not necessarily new point. He addressed his bunny now, giving him a knowing look.

"If we see Springtrap, we need to apologize to him too, I guess." Danny said, but kept mulling over Mike's plan in the back of his mind. Bonnie scoffed, tossing his head and making his ears bob in irritation.

"You go ahead and fly solo on that one, _kemosabe_. I wouldn't touch that creepy older me with a ten foot microphone stand." Bonnie's teenager based programming sometimes lead him to make stubborn statements, and be a little petulant over things he was sensitive about.

But even this side of Bonnie was new to Fitzgerald. Come to think of it, Bonnie's elation over seeing Danny hadn't even sort of extended to Springtrap. And Springtrap's voice hadn't activated Bonnie either—it was Danny's. Bonnie said so himself. But Bonnie had been the first to turn a negative light on Springtrap when he learned Spring had helped Danny come down to this dangerous place. Had antagonized him so much, Danny had seen Springtrap make his first solid, real expression.

"You…you don't like Spring, huh Bonnie?"

"I just don't want anything to do with him, kid. It's complicated. And I'm _not_ hashing it out here either, so let's focus on getting you somewhere you know, and I don't. I'll learn the map of this place, you can get your bearings, and then we'll look for Mike. Everyone's happy." Bonnie ranted sardonically. "We'll throw a party."

Danny snorted, but let the subject drop. Bonnie had made that loud and clear.

"Hey…you see that?"

Danny leaned down, grabbed the ball of journal paper. It crinkled in his hands as he unfolded it, spreading it on the wall before he read it.

 _Many pages came beFore this_ _  
_ _In the JOurnaL with a cLue,_ _  
_ _But nOthing coMes after this,_ _  
_ _Unless I wrotE it in the glue.-M_

"…what does it mean?" Bonnie grunted, and Danny jumped. Springtrap wasn't a big talker, nor did he ever question Mike's rambling notes and comments.

Huh.

"I…I dunno. I think maybe," he scanned it again, frowning, "some of the words are _weird_ , like, they've got capital letters, but I'm not sure what—" Bonnie leaned in, and Danny could hear the cameras in his eyes focus and sharpen, and begin adjusting rapidly.

"F. O. L. L. O. M. E." Bonnie said.

"Fullomee?" Danny tried.

Bonnie's processors whirred, before suddenly,

"Try it slower, kid."

"Full…Foll…Folloo-Follow— _follow me_?"

"Well. Guess we're headed in the right direction then. Hah! And to think, I only showed you this way so I could avoid Springtrap."

"And Funbear." Danny reminded with an amused glance at his best friend.

"Him too, sure. I haven't seen him myself, but Mike says he's ugly. And don't even get me started on 'BawnBawn!'" Bonnie mocked in Funbear's theatrical voice. "What a rip! As soon as we get home, I am copy writing this adorable cotton tail." Bonnie announced as he followed Danny down the darkened hall.

Despite the situation, Danny couldn't help the little laugh.

Man, he had _missed_ this bunny. Ulterior motives or not, Danny can't help but send a silent thank you to Mike—wherever he was—that he had Bonnie stay behind to be with him during this search and rescue.

He's not sure he could have gone on alone much longer.

* * *

 **Springtrap, buddy, you ain't looking so good.**

 **This chapter's song is 'Before' by Shadrow. It's a Springtrap centric tune, and its catchy as all hell. Hey! I just wanted to take a sec, and thank you guys for all the wonderful support. Whether you've reviewed on A03 or FFN or left kudos, or favorited or what have you, thank you very very much! I had some amazing people even do fanart of this series! I hope to do a better shout-out toward the end of this story, I want to make sure I name every who really gave this series some love. Thank you again!**


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